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.

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