Archive for March, 2010

Raising Money for Cancer Research

March 31st, 2010

I promise folks, this will be the only time I solicit anything from you on this blog.

I have made the possibly foolish decision of running the Boston Marathon on 4/19/10 to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I realize most of you who read this blog are strangers, so I wanted to share a little bit about my decision to run and the cause that’s very close to my heart, especially in recent years.

As a bit of background, I am running in memory of my Mom, who passed away this September at the far-too-young age of 59 after a four-year fight with Melanoma. Each day over the past four years was a struggle for my Mom filled with grueling treatments. It was enough to crush most people’s spirit. But not my Mom. She never complained, never asked why and never stopped battling. Her courage and grace was, and always will be, a constant source of amazement to me and all that knew her.

The thing that continues to stick in my mind is that my Mom’s story is not unique. There are so many individuals and families dealing with this terrible disease. In the United States, there were nearly 600,000 cancer-related deaths in 2009. We have made significant progress in the ongoing fight against cancer—but it’s not enough.

This is why I run the Boston Marathon—in memory of my Mom and in honor of courage so many people show each day to beat this disease. If I can muster even half the courage and dedication my Mom displayed—26.2 miles will be a walk in the park. I realize it is a lot to ask of a group of strangers to support my run, but if you have even $10 to spare I hope you will consider this worthy cause: http://www.rundfmc.org/2010/chrisi. I will personally match the first $250 in donations.

To give you an idea of the amazing woman my Mom was, I thought I would share the eulogy I gave at her funeral. While it is deeply personal to me, I think it offers some lessons that all can appreciate.

I know this is way off topic from my usual blog posts, and I completely understand if you choose to skip this and move on—like I said, I won’t use this as a fundraising platform again.

Thank you in advance for your support.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All you have to do is look around this room to get a sense for the type of person my Mom was and how loved she was by so many people. I know many of you had to come a long way to be here today and my family and I are extremely grateful.

As many of you know, my Mom grew up in West Philly. We often teased her, lovingly of course, about those roots. And even though she would hate to admit it, I think the gritty, blue-collar attitude of Philadelphia is something that never left her.

It was evident in the way she preferred to teach us as kids. You see, my Mom was more of a “lead-by-example” kind of parent. Aside from the times when she would tell us “do you know what fat chance means?” upon making some outlandish request, or “don’t say sorry, just don’t do it,” we often had to look a little closer for the lessons my Mom was teaching us. But make no mistake: she had plenty of lessons to teach, she just preferred to live them rather than simply preach them.

In thinking back, there were a number of times when my Mom used opportunities to teach us important lessons and I thought I would share a few of those with you today.

About 21 years ago when my Mom was pregnant with my sister one of those moments presented itself to us. At the time, my Mom was driving an Oldsmobile Delta 88. I don’t know if you are familiar with that car but it was approximately the same length as a Boeing 747. The thing was massive and in order to make any sort of turn you ultimately had to have 10 feet of car jutting out into the road before you could even see the oncoming traffic. One of those times, she was trying to make a left-hand turn onto a busy street. The guy behind her needed to make a right and wasn’t able to go until my Mom turned. He took it upon himself to lay on the horn for a solid minute to voice his displeasure. Now remember, my Mom was 7 months pregnant at this time but that didn’t stop her from putting the car in park, walking up to the gentleman’s car and leaning halfway through the passenger side window to politely inform him she didn’t care how much of a rush he was in she wasn’t going to turn into traffic with two kids in the car and one on the way. In this moment, my Mom taught us a valuable lesson: no matter how much pressure you may feel and even if it is not the easy route, don’t ever stray from what you know in your heart is the right thing to do.

Another important lesson revealed itself when I was in eighth grade. I was playing basketball for St. Ignatius and we were in a tournament in New Jersey. As was always the case, my Mom was sitting in the stands cheering me on. Late in the game, I went up for a layup and came down awkwardly on my foot. At a timeout, I told my Mom that I was pretty certain I had broken my toe. In a loving, comforting tone, my Mom responded: “You’ll be fine; get back out there.” As it turns out, I did break my toe during that game. My Mom however was teaching me yet another important lesson: when people depend and count on you, never let them down no matter how painful it might be.

Along those same lines, during my years as a lifeguard in Sea Isle I thought it was a wise idea to compete in a six-mile bay row. Now, if you know anything about my rowing prowess and the fact that my legs couldn’t reach the seat in front of me in the boat, you know this was not a wise decision. But I was determined. The race went pretty much as you would expect. Just about every boat raced passed us and we were left chasing the pack. But about 5.5 miles into the race, with every boat already finished and daylight in short supply, I heard the sound of my Mom’s voice. She had walked up a bridge that was over the inlet and was screaming at the top of her lungs. I’m not sure I would have finished that last ½ mile without her. But my Mom knew one important thing: you should always be there for your family and friends, no matter how long you may have to wait or how dark it gets.

And my Mom saved perhaps her most important lesson for last. As she continued to fight during her illness her commitment and courage were unwavering. And the lesson was clear: a person’s faith and courage is not defined when times are easy. A person’s true faith and courage is measured when times are tough. My Mom’s faith never faltered and her courage was limitless.

At times growing up, I could be frustrated by the “lead by example” way of my Mom. I didn’t understand why I had to search for meaning all the time. Now I do. You see, the thing is, because my Mom led by example, I know she is not done teaching us yet—we might just have to listen a little closer.

Thank you.

4 comments »

Posted in Uncategorized

Pew Research Studies Online Behavior of Patients with Chronic Illness

March 24th, 2010

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released the findings of a report today (opens to a PDF) that examined the online behavior of individuals living with chronic diseases.

There are two key takeaways from this report. The first is that individuals living with a chronic disease are less likely to have access to the Internet. According to the report: “81% of adults reporting no chronic diseases go online and 62% of adults living with one or more chronic disease go online.” The report goes on to indicate that this is an indication not of desire to go online, but of access to the technology required to go online.

The second key takeaway is that if all variable factors are weighted equally, individuals dealing with a chronic disease are more likely to go online in search of health information and far more likely to consumer user-generated content.

As pharmaceutical marketers, the obvious question is “how does this data impact my efforts?” As I stated earlier this week, every social media engagement strategy should start and end with the patient. The focus has to be creating better patient outcomes. In order to move forward in that process, an understanding of the patient is paramount. This study from Pew helps healthcare companies better understand the behavior of the patient.

The data supports the idea that social media is not a silver bullet. The reality is a significant chunk of the patient population is not online. Clearly, social media is not the right avenue to reach those patients. Traditional forms of marketing (including PR) still hold relevance in reaching this segment of the population. The Pew report states that the lack of access to the internet creates an information gap for patients that are not online. Pharmaceutical companies should focus a piece of their efforts on bridging that gap. As always, social media is but one part of a integrated marketing strategy.

The plus side of this report for social media advocates is that it confirms what we have always known—those patients that do have access to online content consume it voraciously. Anecdotally I know this to be true. My Mom battled Melanoma for 3.5 years and was constantly online looking for new research, treatment options and support groups. In some small way, it helped her feel connected to a community and less isolated in her struggle. That’s no small feat. Social media remains a powerful platform to engage with patients, hear their feedback and work toward the lofty goal of achieving better outcomes.

11 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

What to Expect from FDA Pharma Social Media Guidance

March 23rd, 2010

Will FDA guidance cause pharma to jump into social media head first?

The time for presentations and comments to the FDA on the use of social media by pharmaceutical companies has come and gone. The FDA now has the not-so-enviable task of sifting through those comments and putting out some form of coherent social media guidance.

It’s a long road and nobody can accurately predict when that guidance will come. Yet, hordes of people wait anxiously for the FDA to “rule” on the matter. The pent up anticipation seems to indicate that with one wave of the wand the FDA will magically deem social media the pharmaceutical industry’s play pen. The indication is that the FDA’s silence on the matter to this point is the only remaining hurdle to social media adoption by healthcare companies. It is not. Plenty of hurdles and landmines remain.

By issuing guidance, the FDA will not suddenly unleash a stampede of pharmaceutical companies that were waiting for the flood gates to open. The participation of pharmaceutical companies will still be a slow trickle. Why?

Number one: nobody is quite certain what the FDA will say on the matter. It is quite possible that any guidance issued will be so limiting it will make social media engagement even more challenging that it already is today. That possibility is slim though, as the FDA’s silence to date has acted as a repellant to any would-be social media efforts.

Number two: regulatory and legal hurdles will still exist. You can bet that whatever guidance is issued by the FDA it will not encourage a free-for-all—nor should it. This means that pharmaceutical companies will still have to operate within a controlled and sanctioned environment. The practical implication of this is that the regulatory department inside pharmaceutical companies remains the biggest roadblocks to an engagement getting off the ground. They will still harbor concerns and express a reluctance to move forward. It is the job of the social media advocate/evangelist/expert/wingnut to understand those concerns. The regulatory people should be folded into the process early and often. Embrace them; don’t keep them at arm’s length.

Number three: I am still not convinced that the lack of FDA guidance is the biggest roadblock on the path to social media bliss for pharmaceutical companies. Similar trajectories have unfolded in other industries (albeit, not regulated ones). For example, B2B technology companies have been slow to adopt social media. The reason is a mix of a corporate culture that has yet to embrace it and a lack of clear understanding of where the B2B audience is online. This same dynamic holds true for pharmaceutical companies. In order to move forward with social media engagement strategies, a significant shift in thinking is required.

This list could probably extend on for another 1,000 words and still not encompass the litany of challenges that exist. The point of this is not to dash the optimism many feel about the FDA’s pending guidance. I too am optimistic that this will help nudge some apprehensive companies off the sidelines. Call me cynical (I prefer realistic or pragmatic): I simply don’t think the FDA’s guidance on social media will create explosive growth. Instead, I think it will help to sustain the steady growth path already in progress.

5 comments »

Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

Setting Pharmaceutical Social Media Strategy

March 22nd, 2010

Where does the patient fall in your social media thinking?

Few people would disagree that strategy is an integral part of any social media engagement. Despite what many people might assume, social media is not something marketers should engage in without a clear purpose or goal in mind. But how to arrive at the strategy is less clear.

Traditional marketing metrics become less quantifiable in social media. You can’t measure the success of a campaign because campaign thinking fails in social media. You can’t focus solely on bottom-line impact or your efforts will come across as blatant attempts to promote. This leaves many marketers in a pickle—without a point to work backwards from; forming a coherent strategy is a difficult task.

But it doesn’t have to be. Too many marketers walk into social media engagement planning focused on how to get the most eyeballs. If that were the only measure that guided social media strategy it would quickly become extinct. There are much more efficient ways to simply hitting eyeballs than using social media.

The better approach is to focus on Return on Health (ROH) and consider the behavior of your patient. Thinking first about the behavior of your patient will guide you to the right platforms. For example, if you are dealing with an ailment that generally impacts children, what is the first thing a parent will likely do upon learning their child is inflicted with this ailment? Most parents search for answers and will head to Google to find them. The trick is to ask yourself, what type of information are they looking for in this search? If they are searching for insight on treatment options, severity and past experiences, you can gear your social media efforts to reflect that. You should also survey what online sources of information already exist. Have you considered Google Health as a source of information for patients? Better still, have you tracked down the sources of information that feed into Google Health and ensured its accuracy? If you are not proactively addressing these questions you are leaving your online presence to chance. What about a platform such as Yahoo! Answers? Have you scanned the discussion taking place there to get a sense for the sentiment about either your brand or the common concerns of dealing with a particular ailment?

The bottom is this: social media strategy too often focuses on superficial measures as its guide. Metrics like unique visitors per month, pages viewed per visitor and bounce rate should not inform our course of action. These are only surface observations and are weak when used as guiding lights. Social media strategy should start with the patient.

11 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Dissecting Novartis’ Comments to the FDA on the Use of Social Media

March 18th, 2010

Novartis is one of a slew of pharmaceutical companies that have submitted comments to the FDA on the appropriate use of social media. As I have said before, I applaud the effort of any organization willing to step above the noise and offer pragmatic solutions. Far too many organizations criticize from the sideline without proposing a plan to move forward. That’s a futile exercise.

(Note: If you’d like to read Novartis’ full comments, John Mack of the Pharma Marketing Blog, has the document posted along with his thoughts)

The Novartis document covers a wide-range of issues, but I would like to cover the two most relevant to the business of moving social media forward.

1.) The Use of Shortened Links and Hashtags

Novartis tackles the space constraints of social media—particularly Twitter—head on by suggesting the use of a “bit.ly for the FDA that points to drug information on an FDA controlled Website.” The idea is that any time a pharmaceutical company engages on a topic that requires fair-balance and risk information, it could provide an FDA-approved link providing all appropriate risk information. This would pertain to both branded product communications and disease-state conversations. Novartis has made an interesting suggestion here. But the problem of space will remain. What happens when a pharma company would like to direct a patient to an educational site? This URL, along with the FDA-approved URL, would make space limitations a huge hurdle. There would be virtually no room remaining for additional text. Perhaps this idea would be better suited as a solution pertaining only to product communications. This would ease another major concern I have—that a solution like this would tempt far too many companies into abusing social media and constantly pushing product. To its credit: Novartis seems to recognize this can’t be the case. On more than one occasion, the company points out that a clear line has to be drawn between social media efforts with the intent to education and those with the intent to promote. The latter has virtually no place in social media.

In addition, Novartis suggests the use of standard hashtags that would be approved by the FDA. These hashtags would follow any sanctioned communications coming from the pharmaceutical company. For example, if a company had a product intended to treat diabetes, each communication would be followed by a tag such as #diabetes. This is more of a suggestion for the FDA than it is for the pharmaceutical companies. One of the major questions surrounding the use of social media by healthcare companies is who will assume the burden of monitoring these conversations? The FDA is clearly concerned that the newfound volume will cripple the organization. It’s a legitimate concern, and the goal of Novartis’ suggestion seems to be geared toward offering a solution to that end. Even still, while this suggestion might lessen the burden, it does not eliminate it entirely. There are far too many treatment options and health conditions to manage under one roof (or hashtag as the case may be). The suggestion by Novartis acknowledges that without working with the FDA to manage the process, it likely will fail before it starts.

2.) Redefining Adverse Events

If you surveyed ten execs inside of pharmaceutical companies, nine of them would tell you the biggest hurdle they face in getting social media efforts started is how to deal with adverse events. Right or wrong: this remains a major issue.

In its comments to the FDA, Novartis correctly points out that the AE reporting system was not intended to function in the fluid environment of social media. The identifiable reporter section of adverse event reporting is particularly sticky when it comes to social media. How is a pharmaceutical company supposed to decipher identifiable reporters in the anonymous world of social media? It can be near impossible. With that in mind, Novartis has proposed a reworking of the AE reporting structure to account for this difficulty. Essentially, Novartis has suggested an extra layer that would deem a reporter as identifiable only if they can be privately contacted.

Whether or not this type of suggestion is taken seriously by the FDA, Novartis has pinpointed a key problem: you can’t apply outdated systems to new-era communication technologies. It would be like retro-fitting a 2010 Corvette with the engine of a Chevy Nova—you won’t get very far.

As we continue to sift through the comments made by pharmaceutical companies, the FDA will be tasked with the job of boiling it all down to a succinct recommendation. I don’t envy their task. Everyone has an opinion on how this should go. Inevitably, some people will feel the FDA did its job while others will feel slighted. But that’s not important. Currently, we have been working within a self-imposed set of regulations. The regulatory environment has been so uncertain that marketers have proceeded with extreme caution. Whatever the guidance will be, at least it will provide some parameters for pharmaceutical companies to evaluate and move forward.

5 comments »

Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

Course Correcting the sanofi-aventis Social Media Firestorm

March 12th, 2010

Don't let your social media strategy go up in flames.

Nobody ever said social media was easy. sanofi-aventis is learning that lesson the hard way as its Facebook page has been the target of an onslaught of negative commentary from a patient named Shirley.

Before I go any further with this post, let me first point out that I am passing no judgment on Shirley and what she has gone through nor am I condemning sanofi-aventis. I fully realize that there is a heaping pile of information that very few people have access to in this case. So again, this is not about criticizing Shirley’s actions; it is about evaluating what we can learn from this situation as outside observers.

First a quick synopsis: basically, Shirley is contending she was deceived about the side effects of cancer drug Taxotere—which she claims is responsible for permanent hair loss. She goes on to indicate that after numerous efforts to get in touch with sanofi-aventis through traditional channels, she has taken her quest to social media channels. If that is in fact the case, then sanofi-aventis has a bigger problem on its hands—a fatally flawed customer relationship management process. Keep in mind, people don’t geenrally turn to social media as a first-line venting platform but your efforts on social media can bear the brunt of failures in other parts of your company.

In this case, the target of her attacks has been the sanofi-aventis VOICES Facebook page (after posting it to a fake sanofi-aventis page that tipped its hand by botching the proper company branding—another post for another day). She has also seemingly recruited her friends and family to join in the cause.

To sum it up: Shirley has hijacked a Facebook page to air her discontent with the adverse effects of a cancer treatment. Pharma social media folks: we have a problem.

Given the situation that sanofi-aventis has found itself in, what can it do to course correct? More importantly, how could it have better planned for such a social media calamity?

It is easy to point the finger at sanofi-aventis without understanding the dynamics of Facebook. Facebook itself has no advanced moderation functionality (again, a post for another day) if it is set up as an open group. This means companies setting up a presence on Facebook as an open group are provided two options: allow open commentary or disable the feature entirely. For some industries, that’s an easy decision, but for pharmaceutical companies the question is enormously difficult. sanofi-aventis is not the only pharmaceutical company to allow open and un-moderated comments on its wall. Johnson and Johnson has done the same and has weathered the storm during recent negative publicity events such as the Tylenol recall and a round of layoffs. But this is different. This involves the worst fears of every opponent of pharmaceutical social media—adverse events.

So was this preventable? Could sanofi-aventis have designed a social media strategy that would have prevented the firestorm that occurred? Here again I feel it is worth mentioning I am not suggesting sanofi-aventis should have covered up Shirley’s claims. Rather, I am suggesting that with better planning, those claims could have been directed to the right department and aired in the right forum. I have been sitting on this since the news first broke, racking my brain to pinpoint where it went wrong and figure out how to prevent future missteps. While I do think there were missteps, I’m not sure it was entirely preventable. sanofi-aventis made the decision to allow un-moderated content. Short of completely disabling conversation—this situation was not preventable. However, sanofi-aventis could have taken some precautionary measures to mitigate its risk. The other options with these types of groups would be to make them entirely closed off and not viewable by the outside world. This allows only members to comment and see the content. The group is not even searchable on this setting. There is an in between that allows the administrator to approve all members, but the content is still viewable by all.

Instead of preventing this from happening, what could sanofi-aventis have done differently to keep it under control? First, there is some benefit to limiting the hours during which comments are permitted on Facebook. For example, you can lock down the wall during the hours when there is no employee available to monitor commentary. At least this allows a company to prevent inappropriate comments during off hours. If they occur during office hours, they can be handled accordingly and directed to the right channels. Of course, this does not prevent the situation, but would help to mitigate the risk. In evaluating what happened here, most of the comments came during office hours. It begs the question: what took so long to shut the wall down? You can forgive one, but after the second comment, the wall should have been shut down entirely until further notice. Now you have to be careful here. It could certainly appear as though you are attempting to cover up information. People that work in the pharmaceutical industry know that there are far too many risks associated with having a discussion like this in a public forum. Upon shutting down the wall, sanofi-aventis could consider posting a message to the wall that indicates why the wall was shut down, that the compliant was being handled through appropriate channels and that once resolved it would be opened back up for discussion. In doing so, you would effectively acknowledge the situation and not hide from it, but allow it to be handled in an appropriate manner.

Another apparent misstep in this process was that there are no terms and conditions posted on the Facebook page of sanofi-aventis. While this would not automatically prevent a user from posting negative comments, it would at least lay the ground work for the actions that would follow and would set a standard for all users to abide by. It should also point patients to the easiest way to report adverse events.

Finally, sanofi-aventis seems to be caught off guard by this situation. It shouldn’t be. Any company opening itself up to the risks associated with social media should have a crisis communications policy in place. This policy should have pre-approved language that any approved administrator can use to handle an adverse event report, off-label usage discussion, etc…While you can never be prepared for every circumstance that develops, you can certainly put the pieces in place to act quickly and decisively.

What this recent social media challenge has demonstrated is what most social media advocates have known all along—it’s difficult and there are risks. That’s why as agencies we need to stop overpromising, neglecting strategy and following the shiny object. There are risks associated with social media and no program will go flawlessly—but your response to challenges will say as much as your initial foray. How will you respond?

19 comments »

Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Crisis Communications, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Pharmaceutical Crisis Communications Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media sanofi-aventis

What Social Media Tools Are You Overlooking?

March 10th, 2010

Yesterday, WebMD launched what it has termed Health Exchange—a portal that hosts both WebMD moderated exchanges, as well as member created exchanges on various health topics. Its purpose and functionality is very similar to Yahoo! Answers except with a narrower focus.

Of course, pharmaceutical social media fanatics immediately started giggling for joy at the introduction of another social media platform to reach patients. But this got me thinking, what social media platforms are you overlooking in your engagement strategy? Everyone trots out plans bursting with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter; but what about the underrated or ignored?

In some ways, WebMD falls into that category. The once-mighty health knowledge portal has been eclipsed (in mindshare) by the likes of Google and Bing Health. Rarely do social media strategies incorporate the need for communicating on WebMD as an engagement tactic. The question is: why not? You have a captive audience of people that are clearly “health information seekers.” If there ever was a community of people open to receiving information on health topics, WebMD would be that community.

The same holds true for Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Answers is not bantered about as a social media tool of choice. Why? It’s not the shiny object (remember; heed my warning on shiny object syndrome, a health risk in its own right). And while it’s not one of the trendy tools when it comes to social media, it can be an effective platform to foster engagement. That is our goal isn’t it?

Take a look at this recent search for the term Melanoma:

These results are based on a search conducted today that returned well over 100 results from the past 7 days. Of course, some of these results are not relevant, but there is no denying the number of people interested in learning more about Melanoma. This presents an opportunity for healthcare companies to share its information on the topic. It has to be done delicately given the sensitive nature of the topic; but it can be done. For example, if a pharmaceutical company established a microsite dedicated to educating patients and their families on living with Melanoma, they could offer that up as a resource (with full disclosure as to who they are). Isn’t this the type of information that the folks scouring Yahoo! Answers would find useful?

In developing social media strategies, we focus our attention on the new tools of the day. What this really amounts to is diverting our attention from other forms of engagement that are sitting squarely in front of our eyes. WebMD and Yahoo! Answers are just two such examples—what other social media platforms are we being distracted from due to shiny object syndrome?

11 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media WebMD Health Exchange Yahoo! Answers

PhRMA Puts Pressure on FDA to Issue Social Media Guidance

March 9th, 2010

One of the more consistent voices in the quest to convince the FDA to issue guidance on the use of social media for pharmaceutical marketing has been the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). The organization was among the first to offer a workable solution to the problem of providing fair-balance and communicating side effects in the space constraints often associated with social media. And while I have a fundamental disagreement with the premise of an “FDA-approved” symbol, I have always maintained that any organization proposing solutions and not just spouting rhetoric is one step ahead of the game.

Today, the PhRMA turned up the pressure on the FDA by putting a bit of marketing muscle behind its FDA comments. Knowing full well that few people would take the time to read the entire 16-page document that makes up the PhRMA’s comments to the FDA, the organization issued a statement containing only the highlights.

As expected, the statement built the case on why social media is an important tool for pharmaceutical companies. The PhRMA highlighted that more patients than ever before are going online to access health information and healthcare companies have a responsibility to ensure that information is timely and accurate.

From there, the PhRMA took an interesting approach to forcing the FDA’s hand. They went with what I will call the “if you can do it why can’t we” approach.

Behold: “What’s more, the Agency should avoid chilling manufacturers’ responsible communication about their medical products and should permit them to take full advantage of the same technologies that the FDA and the White House use – including blogs, video, search and such social networking sites as Twitter™ – to communicate important health information directly to patients and their doctors.”

That’s fairly strong language for an organization that tends to tilt toward the conservative when it comes to messaging. There are a number of sections in the PhRMA’s public comments to the FDA that read very similar. Bravo! They are dead on when it comes to this topic. The FDA has demonstrated through its actions that it sees the value provided by social media in communicating information to doctors, patients and other relevant healthcare audiences. The PhRMA is just conveniently pointing that out.

Pharmaceutical companies engaging in social media should do so only if they have more value to add to the community than they extract. They should not be there solely to push product and should focus on the Return on Health of the patient. This means a commitment to creating better health outcomes for patients by providing more access to information. The PhRMA is not-so-subtly driving this message home and attempting to place added pressure on the FDA. I for one hope it works!

5 comments »

Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Pharmaceutical Social Media in Phases and on a Budget

March 5th, 2010

Put the building blocks in place for effective social media

If you survey the landscape of pharmaceutical social media, the most prominent examples are the companies that have carved out a large swath of social media real estate. You will see microsites, YouTube channels and mobile applications. To some, it can be disheartening and overwhelming when you calculate the amount of time and money that is sunk into these efforts.

But fear not, large-scale healthcare social media efforts do not have to happen overnight. I have advocated here before that a slow and steady approach to social media is prudent—particularly in the regulation-heavy environment of the pharmaceutical industry. A phased-out approach allows you to put the building blocks in place, and it also has the added bonus of spreading out the cost. Social media does not have to be exorbitantly expensive out of the gates.

First, let’s start with why some social media engagement strategies are so expensive. It’s just like the economics class you took in college; there is a significant barrier to entry for elaborate social media programs. The development of a microsite to house the piles of interactive content you have recently developed does not come cheap. The sheer cost of developing the site, let alone maintaining it, can turn many companies away. Once you have the site up, you have to provide resources for consistent engagement. It’s not social if you aren’t engaging. This too comes at a price. So you can see why the larger foothold a pharmaceutical company places in social media the more the tab balloons. In addition to added price comes added risk. This is not to say these strategies are flawed. Quite the contrary. But building up to this level of social media engagement both maximizes effectiveness at each phase and minimizes sticker shock.

While the barrier to entry for something like a microsite might be high, the majority of social media platforms have minimal to zero barriers to entry. The general purpose of developing a microsite is to house and publish different types of content, share educational material and interact directly with customers. A couple of problems: many companies starting out in social media do not have the brand muscle to direct people back to a newly established site. Instead, a better approach is to realize that people have already staked out their congregating places on line. Why not go where they are and provide content of value? My agency’s principal (and my boss), uses the analogy of leaving a trail of bread crumbs. That trail will be followed and people will find their way back to the origin. If you must have a social media hub, why not consider setting up a presence on Facebook? Here you can post videos, relevant news articles, engage with customers and share your industry commentary. Oh, and did I mention, it’s free?

Look, social media is hard and any way you chose to engage is going to cost money and demand expertise. The point is: don’t shy away from giving social media a shot because you only see monolithic companies with monolithic budgets to match giving it a try. There are building blocks to getting to that point—pillars that are critical for success.

3 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

Hoarding Knowledge Does not Equate to Power

March 4th, 2010

Pharma cos. should not play gatekeeper in social media

As an industry, we’ve generally agreed upon the fact that the greatest contribution of a pharmaceutical company to social media is making its information more widely available. Health information seekers are scouring the Internet for credible resources on disease states and treatment options. The healthcare companies willing to fill that void in social media have a unique opportunity.

There’s one problem. The pharmaceutical industry is not one that is accustomed to sharing an abundance of information. It runs counter to their culture where drugs are dreamed up by white-coated scientists in some far-flung lab. Their efforts, if brought to market, represent a billion or more dollars in time, energy and resources. This is not something any pharmaceutical company is willing to give up just to enhance the information pool of social media platforms. Nor should they.

A common misnomer about healthcare companies participating in social media is that in order to create value, they need to fork over proprietary information. That simply is not true. As mentioned above, the years, brainpower and sheer dollar amount that is poured into bringing a drug to market is not something that should be handed over lightly. But it doesn’t have to be part of the discussion. In fact, patients on social media platforms don’t give a hoot about that kind of information. They want to know what it means. Why should they care? How can this help them to better understand and improve their health?

That’s a philosophy pharmaceutical companies should be able to get on board with. And while historically speaking, the industry might not dole out information freely, that is changing. As I stated before, this is a sea change, not a fad. Healthcare companies are increasingly seeking to uncover partners that help them spread out the risk of bringing a drug to market. These alliances involve shared research and close collaboration. The culture is changing and it’s aligning more closely with social media.

The problem some pharmaceutical companies face is that they think like scientists. They create a new compound and want to hoard all of the information associated with that compound. In their minds, acting as the information gatekeeper amounts to power. In this new era, information still equates to power—but it should be in the hands of the patients, not the pharmaceutical companies.

4 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media