Pfizer DTC Pledge: ED is Litmus Test
Pfizer recently announced changes to its direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs (see "Pfizer Announces Improvements to Consumer Advertising for Prescription Medicines"). The Pfizer pledge promises improvements before the end of...
Internet Marketing: Risks Ahead
In an Ad Age story ("Marketers Wrestle with Hard-to-Control" Web Content") doubt is cast upon the wisdom of advertising on blogs because such consumer-controlled Internet venues "cannot be controlled." The corollary,...
Bloggers Worry Pharma More Than FDA
Billy Tauzin, CEO of PhRMA, the US drug industry trade group, laid into the FDA's proposal for a Drug Watch site (see "FDA Drug Watch Site Guidelines") according to a Reuters...
Alternatives to DTC, Part 1
Recently, the following items have appeared in my radar screen: Last week I was visited by two entrepreneurs who showed me a wireless PC device they plan...
Reminder Ads – Pharma’s Dodo?
PhRMA's New "Guiding Principle" #10 for Direct-to-Consumer Advertising states: "DTC television advertising that identifies a product by name should clearly state the health conditions for which the medicine is approved and...
PhRMA Finalizes DTC Principles
The US pharmaceutical trade association, PhRMA, finalized its "Guiding Principles" for TV and print direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising yesterday (see "AmericaÂs Pharmaceutical Industry Announces Guidelines on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising" for the announcement; the...
Healthy Pharma 2010
W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, head of PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry trade association, was recently interviewed by the New York Times (see "Extended Version of the Saturday Interview With W.J. 'Billy' Tauzin"). In...
McKinnell’s Mea Non Culpa
If you buy the book "A Call to Action" by Pfizer's CEO, Dr. Hank McKinnell, with the notion that you will learn what this pharma executive believes the industry should do...
PhRMA Rules Come Up Short
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, has sent out a trial balloon regarding its DTC Voluntary "Guiding Principles" (see...
Restrict DTC, but Extend the Patent for New Drugs
When the leading Republican member of Congress and a contender for the next president of the United States says it's time for the pharmaceutical industry to "clean up it's act" and...
