Internet, Computer-based & Other Forms of eMarketing
The following Pharma Marketing News reprints and case studies relating to "eMarketing" - the use of the Internet to market to consumers and/or physicians using public Web site or e-mail - are available. You might also be interested in the following categories for additional reprints relating to Marketing Techniques and Tools:
Most reprints are free of charge. Others can be ordered and paid for by credit card online and you will receive a download link to the full article (PDF file) immediately upon payment.
Is it time for the pharmaceutical industry to take the advice of some of its critics and use the new "social media" tools available to it and extricate itself from its moribund situation of declining ROI?
These new tools -- lumped under the heading "social networking" or "Web 2.0 -- are big topics of discussion at many pharmaceutical marketing conferences. The question is, will pharma marketers embrace them, learn how to use them, and will they see benefits?
This collection of Pharma Marketing News articles, blog posts, and survey results provides you with an excellent introduction to the many issues involved in social media pharma marketing.
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Special Supplement
ePharma Marketing
Many experts believe that pharma eMarketing is at a tipping point and that pharmaceutical companies are poised to shift substantial ad spending from TV and other media to the Internet.
The selection of articles in this Special Supplement to Pharma Marketing News was chosen to give you a better perspective on pharma eMarketing. Included are real world case studies that illustrate the advantages of eMarketing such as depth of information, interaction, relationship building and superior customer engagement.
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A Few Things I Learned at FDA's Social Media Hearing
What's Next is What Counts
This article presents key takeaways from the FDA hearing, a synopsis of the presentations made by John Mack, Publisher, Pharma Marketing News, at the hearing, a review of Ignite Health's study regarding effectiveness of sponsored links, and the next steps in the process of issuing guidance.
The Absolute, Relative, and Incremental ROI of DTC e-Marketing
The debate surrounding the strategic and economic value of having an online DTC strategy rings loud and clear at most global pharmaceutical companies today. In general, the key questions are where and how the online strategy creates disproportionate and sustainable value for the brand. This article focuses on the power of the product Web site as a conversion tool and illustrates how the Web strategy fits into the overall marketing continuum - from initial engagement all the way to loyalty marketing.
Accountability for Pharma Content on Social Media Sites
A substantial portion of drug industry comments submitted to the FDA was devoted to how pharmaceutical companies should be held accountable for a communication about its product(s) and how much control they exert over activities on the Internet and social media.
Internet advertising revenue in the United States totaled $26.0 billion for the full year of 2010. How much of this was spent by pharma? Best guesstimate: $1 billion, which accounts for about 11% of the total pharma physician and consumer ad spend. This article includes data and charts showing trends.
This article focuses on Adobe Connect for eDetailing, a specific collaboration between Adobe and ConnectSolutions, a leading provider of private cloud deployments of web conferencing and collaboration solutions.
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Applying FDA Marketing Regulations to Internet Promotions
Preeti Pinto, M.S., Senior Director Promotional Regulatory Affairs, AstraZeneca, provides insight on the regulatory actions taken by the FDA with respect to online DTC marketing by pharmaceutical companies. She summarizes the most commonly cited violations found on pharmaceutical company web pages.
Despite dire predictions of 'PR failure,' the #rxsave Twitter chat hosted by @AstraZenecaUS on 15 February 2011 was a great success, which is pharma social media speak for 'did not crash and burn.' It was proof that a pharmaceutical company can indeed host meaningful Twitter chats.
Insider Reactions to Social Media Guidelines from Industry Regulators
This article reports the results of an informal Weber Shandwick survey regarding social media guidelines recently published by the British pharmaceutical industry regulators. It includes advice for how to innovate online without waiting for more specific guidelines from regulators.
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The British Pharmaceutical Industry Issues Social Media Guidance for Adverse Event Reporting
Once again the Brits have beaten the US in issuing useful guidelines for social media use by the pharmaceutical industry! As I reported back in April, 2011, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), which oversees the self-regulatory code of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), published "informal guidance" providing the drug industry advice on how to use online communications.
Brits Beat FDA and PhRMA: Issue Social Media Guidance for Pharma
Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority Issues Social Media Guidance for Pharma.
The Brits have won the race to issue social media guidance for the drug industry! In April, 2011, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), which oversees the self-regulatory code of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), published 'informal guidance' providing the drug industry advice on how to use online communications.
There are thousands of health Web sites on the Internet. Accreditation is not an appropriate path for all these sites to take, but for those sites that can afford it and that meet rigorous standards for quality and accountability, accreditation can help distinguish them from their competitors and increase consumer trust. Pharmaceutical sites focusing on consumers, in particular, stand to benefit.
For various reasons, it is hard to find a conclusively documented answer to a seemingly simple question: do interactive health education media improve patients' health practices? In fact, a recent high-profile report attempted to answer that question and got it wrong: procedural flaws led them to an unjustified conclusion. The problem lies in seeking a broad general picture. More appropriate is to focus on the specific patient population, the distinct behaviors to be changed, and the particular tactics employed.
Steve Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Medsite has reengineered his company's eDetailing line to create engaging interactions crafted around effective methods to engage, inform, and educate adults. Now he has tapped this experience to design the company's first Consumer Detailing ("cDetailing") product, which is a novel rich-media online consumer disease education and drug information program.
A conversation with Joseph Kim, MD, MPH, VP of Medical Affairs and Technology at Medical Communications Media, Inc., about the rapid development of mobile medical applications and the legal and regulatory issues that physicians, patients, and pharma developers/sponsors should be aware of.
The Three Main Ways of Detailing Physicians Online
A conversation with Monique Levy, VP Research at Manhattan Research, about the changing pharma eDetailing landscape.
Ms. Levy discusses how the online pharma promotion landscape has changed, and which types of programs garner the largest audience as well as how the rep relationship is evolving and the role of new technologies such as tablets.
Pharmaceutical companies are under increasing pressure to reduce costs, speed the time-to-market for new products and ensure that physicians are informed and educated about their products.
MERGE Rx recognizes this need and offers a new generation of Web-enabled software that helps pharmaceutical companies manage physician interactions -- including key opinion leader (KOL) management, phaseIV trials, and eDetailing -- from a single, secure and scalable access point.
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Checking Under the Hood of Pharma Mobile Apps
Be Aware of What's Behind the App: Disclaimers Tell Only Part of the Story
Let's look 'under the hoods' of two pharma-sponsored mobile apps and compare disclaimers. We'll compare Janssen's PASI calculator, which has an update disclaimer, with the new AFib Educator 2.0 app developed by Sanofi-Aventis.
Citizen Petition Likely to Delay FDA Social Media Guidance
Why Now?
Allergan, Eli Lilly, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Novo, and Sanofi-Aventis filed a 'citizen petition' with the FDA, urging the agency to 'establish comprehensive, clear and binding regulations to guide the industry' in communicating off-label drug information to physicians and payers. Although the words 'Internet' and 'Social Media' are not mentioned in the petition, it is likely to hold up social media guidelines regarding 'unsolicited requests' that were promised as the first in a series of FDA guidelines.
This article is a review of an industry conference presentation that focused focused on leveraging eDetailing for effective closed-loop marketing campaigns.
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Closed-Loop Patient Education: MedTera and HealthPrize Team Up to Improve Medication Adherence & Health Outcomes
MedTera and HealthPrize Team Up to Improve Medication Adherence & Health Outcomes
MedTera recently partnered with HealthPrize Technologies, a web-based software company that motivates people to fill and stay on prescription medications, to bring together MedTera's online and offline educational resources and HealthPrize's online, interactive platform to educate people about their chronic diseases and incentivize them for taking their medications as prescribed.
Pfizer and Sermo -- a Web-based community where physicians share observations from daily practice, discuss emerging trends and provide new insights into medications, devices and treatments -- recently announced a "strategic collaboration designed to redefine the way physicians in the U.S. and the healthcare industry work together to improve patient care."
To answer the many questions raised by this collaboration -- including concerns about off-label communications -- Pharma Marketing News invited Daniel Palestrant, M.D., founder and CEO of Sermo, to be a guest on a recent Pharma Marketing Talk podcast.
This article is based partly on that interview as well as other sources.
This article presents opinions and evidence that there is a slump in pharma marketing spending and provides some tips to vendors and ad agencies to help them the slump.
The Death of the Traditional Pharma Salesman and the Birth of the "Sales Cyborg."
eDetailing in one form or another seems to be making a comeback since the recession hit the drug industry in 2007 and 2008. Which is the "chicken" and which is the "egg"? Did the uptick in adoption of eDetailing technology lead to the recent layoff of pharma reps or were reps laid off because of the economy and subsequently replaced by machines?
Consumer Use of the Internet for Health: Whose Numbers Do You Believe?
This article includes DATA and an analysis of methodologies of various online consumer market research studies to help you understand how to apply these data to your online marketing campaigns.
Data Mining in the Deep, Dark Social Networks of Patients
Advice for Pharma: Caveat Emptor
If pharma marketers wish to tap into closed online patient communities that are rich sources of information, they need to pay careful attention to the rules lest they suffer the consequences to their reputations.
Deconstructing Pitts' Guiding Principles for Pharma Social Media
Taking a Closer Look
Peter Pitts, author of DrugWonks Blog, has put together 11 "principles that must serve as the basic substrate of regulated social media participation. This article takes a closer, critical look at "Pitts' Principles" and discusses how successful the pharma industry has been at following these principles to date.
Develop Effective Online Compliance Programs: Leverage Health Beliefs
According to a Jupiter survey, consumers don't manage their health online because they have low confidence in their ability to use online health resources to improve their health. Pharmaceutical marketers must leverage health beliefs and models to design comparatively more effective adherence-related online marketing programs.
Topics covered include:
Learn how self-efficacy predicts online consumers' health-related behavior
Define your online strategy and prioritize
spending on online marketing tactics
Solving Pharma's Social Media Problems -- Mission Possible?
A conversation with Mark Bard, founder of the Digital Health Coalition, regarding the mission of the Coalition and what companies and individuals are involved.
While primary care physicians in general are frequent users of the Internet, oncologists see online sources of information as more important than PCPs and therefore may need less personal contact to learn about products. That was just one of the results from the 2011 Digital Life survey of 1,454 physicians summarized is this article.
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Digitally-Feeble Pharma
Is Your Brand a Digital Genius or a Feeble-Minded Idiot?
When it comes to digital IQ, some brands are geniuses and some are feeble-minded idiots, according to the "L2 Digital IQ Index" for pharmaceutical brands, a first-of-its kind measurement of the digital competence of 51 pharma brands across eight therapeutic categories.
These highlights from the 2010 DigiPharm EU conference summarizes presentations made by marketing specialists from Lundbeck, Janssen, GSK, Schering Plough, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Genzyme and Merck Serono. It's a summary of the best current practices and a glimpse at how EU pharma companies are driving digital marketing and communications forward.
This article describes the services offered by DocCheck and specifically focuses on the portal's market research and physician-targeting capabilities, which any pharmaceutical marketer wishing to do professional marketing in Germany should know more about. Includes sections:
eDetailing Strategies for a Higher Physician Response
Most pharmaceutical firms have piloted eDetailing programs and scaled them successfully. However, although Traditional eDetailing has been around for at least 5 years, marketers must expand the definition of eDetailing. To this end Croom offers a Best Practice Guide for eDetailing to help pharma marketers optimize the reach and impact of eDetailing.
eDetailing proponents, inside pharma companies and outside, use survey data to justify their arguments for greater spending on eDetails. In some cases, however, the numbers seem to show confusing trends and even may suggest that eDetailing may not be all that it's cracked up to be.
To make sense of current estimates about pharma spending online and understand where it may be heading in the future, Pharma Marketing News recently hosted a Pharma Marketing Roundtable discussion of the issues. This article summarizes that discussion.
Several recent surveys indicate that pharmaceutical companies will spend more money on e-mail marketing to consumers in 2005 (see "DTC in 2005: Can You Teach Old Dogs New Tricks?"). Perhaps they should also spend some money and time to ensure that their e-mail campaigns adhere to emerging best practices with regard to privacy, HIPAA, SPAM, and permission-based marketing.
Pharmaceutical marketing strategies are evolving more rapidly than any other time in history. The traditional detail-based marketing model is being challenged by physicians' ever-growing time pressures and lack of time for sales reps.
Given these challenges, most pharmaceutical companies are committing some level of marketing resources to e-promotion, including e-detailing and e-CME initiatives. This article reviews e-prescribing offerings of vendors like Allscripts Healthcare Solutions and ScriptRx, Inc.
A panel entitled What Role Should Pharma Play in ePrescribing and the Point-of-Care? at a recent ePharma Summit conference held in Philadelphia, PA, discussed the issues facing pharmaceutical companies as electronic prescribing (ePrescribing or eRx) threatens to upset the "balance of power" between physicians, pharma companies, and payers at the point-of-care.
Reprints Desk's Solution to the Medical Marketing Blues
This article describes and summarizes the features and benefits of the Reprints Desk's ePrints NRx solution -- a new scientific article collection service that simplifies the re-use of PDFs by medical marketers, brand managers, and sales professionals.
Topics include:
Physicians Value Support Services
Journal Articles Highly Valued by Docs
ePrints NRx Solution
Managing Digital Rights
Solving Persistent eChallenges
Good Reprint Practices
ePrints NRx & Closed-Loop Marketing
Case Study: Web Portal Integration for Immediate Article ePrint Downloads
Although pharmaceutical firms claim they are not required to comply with regulations enacted under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, using HIPAA as a model for online policy may help drug companies improve their public images, build trust with consumers and, ultimately, sell more products
European Compliance Not Only Possible, But Leading Edge
As US pharmaceutical companies search for best practices to battle patient drop-off, their European counterparts have overcome Byzantine regulations and reduced margins to implement strikingly effective compliance programs directly to consumers.
The European eMarketing Scene: Desperately Seeking Strategy
The pharmaceutical industry is struggling to develop an eMarketing strategy in Europe, which is comprised of many relatively small markets (the member countries of the EU) having significant cultural and language differences.
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European Online Marketing Survey Results
This article presents selected results from a survey of pharmaceutical experts on eDetailing and Online Marketing conducted in 2005 by eyeforpharma, MediQuality, and PharmiWeb Solutions.
The Evolving Impact of Anti-Spam Legislation on Online Marketers
In the last year the FTC has issued regulations that set forth additional requirements under the federal CAN-SPAM act that you should be aware of. Hilary M. Wandall, Esq., CIPP, Director, Corporate Legal/Merck Privacy Office, Merck & Co., Inc., summarized these regulations in a recent ePharma Summit presentation in Atlantic City, NJ.
Eyes on the Adherence Prize: How HealthPrize Uses Financial Incentives and Fun to Change Patient Behavior
This article provides details about the HealthPrize's innovative, compelling approach to solving one of pharma's most perplexing puzzle: how to improve medication adherence. Included is a summary of a Pharma Marketing Talk podcast interview of Tom Kottler, CEO, and Katrina S. Firlik, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, HealthPrize.
n the future, will the FDA also be pulled into social media by a major Rx drug recall? What can the drug industry learn from the FDA's use of social media and will FDA's example help guide the industry toward best practices in this area? This article describes FDA's social networking initiatives in context of these questions.
Rules for Third-Party Engagement in Patient/Physician Social Networks
A Social Media Policy is not just an agreement that users must abide by. More importantly, it is a PROMISE to users from site owners/sponsors concerning how they will protect or attempt to protect user-generated content, personal conversations, interactions, and engagements with third-parties on the site. These policies should comply with as-yet-to-be-determined, universally accepted "fair social media practice principles."
Fast Start to Customized ePromotion and eLearning Physician Programs
There is a broad spectrum of online promotional and educational opportunities that pharmaceutical companies have at their disposal to interact with, inform, and influence physicians. Lathian Systems, a provider of online marketing and sales solutions, offers these and more in its Spectrum of Solutions for life science companies.
Focuses Instead on Responsding to "Unsolicited" Off-Label Information Requests
FDA's revised draft guidance calendar for year 2011 is missing 'Promotion of Prescription Drug Products Using Social Media Tools," which WAS on the 2010 Agenda. Included, however, is 'Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Prescription Drug and Medical Device Information, Including Those Encountered on the Internet.' FDA says this includes Internet requests. Why did the FDA put this issue at the TOP of its list of 'issues related to Internet/social media promotion of FDA-regulated medical products' for which it promised guidance? Where did that issue arise? It wasn't mentioned in the Federal Register regarding social media guidance.
This article reviews a presentation made by David Ormesher, CEO of closerlook, inc. at the recent CBI eDetailing Conference in which he said, The future of eDetailing is physician relationship management. The benefits of creating long-term relationships include brand loyalty, detailed customer intelligence and sales integration with the field force.
Four Useful Lessons Pharma Can Learn from the Pfizer Facebook Hack
Pfizer's US corporate Facebook page was hacked by some "Kiddies."
Some biased observers (ie, consultants who currently work for Pfizer or may wish to work for Pfizer in the future) are reluctant to blame Pfizer and tend to shift the blame to Facebook. However, others believe Pfizer is to blame, not Facebook. As the hackers themselves said, it was easy for them to guess Pfizer's Facebook password.
What are the lessons should Pfizer and other pharma companies learn from this?
Google's OneBox Drug "Ads" Steal Clicks Away from Rx Brands
A Search Ad Format That Has All FDA Could Want... But Pharma Can't Use It!
Data suggest that Google's OneBox NIH Rx ads effectively reduce organic search visitation driven to pharma sites pushing the traffic to NIH content instead. Is it logical to conclude that Google stands to gain paid ad revenue when pharma marketers have to compete with OneBox ads by buying more paid search placements to make up for the loss of organic search visits?
Pharmaceutical marketers are continually challenged by their superiors to quantitatively measure the return on investment (ROI) of their campaigns. This is especially true for their eMarketing initiatives.
So, how do you know which online tactics are giving you the best return on your investment? To get started it is helpful to compare and contrast your own online strategy's performance against competitive and perceived "best-of-class" tactics to evaluate the effectiveness of online programs, emulate effective strategies, and establish best practices. In other words, you need some eMarketing benchmarks.
This article summarizes a Pharma Marketing Talk conversation with Carolina Petrini, SVP, Marketing Solutions, comScore, regarding her company's consumer e-marketing effectiveness benchmarks for the pharmaceutical industry.
This article presents the compllete results from the first ever survey of The Pharma Blogosphere in which blog readers evaluate 22 different pharma-related blogs on the basis of readability, credibility, usefulness, and bias.
Each pharmaceutical company should have its own guidelines for best practices in the social media space. To assist in that discussion, Pharma Marketing News hosted a survey to explores issue relating to pharma advertising and engagement in social networks. This article summarizes the results of that survey.
This article presents a summary of a conversation with Jenna Woodul, LiveWorld's EVP and Chief Community Officer, about how pharma companies can manage their social media interactions using technology and credentialed participants.
Is It a Game-Changer for Consumer & Physician Access?
This article summarizes how the iPad is currently being used by the pharmaceutical industry, how it is being adopted by physicians, and what the roadblocks are to using it for eDetailing.
Topics include:
iPad - What's It Good For?
The iPad as a Pharma Marketing Platform
GoMeals
More Consumer Apps
Opening Doors to Physicians
Many Physicians Plan to Buy It
iPad for eDetailing
DrChrono.com Featured on Pharma Marketing Talk Radio
Is It Just Another Tablet Device?
Does No Flash Mean No eDetailing?
iAds for Pharma?
Is Pharma Blocking or Supporting iPad Use by Sales Reps?
The Impact of eDetailing: Will it Complement, Replace, or Become Integrated with the Sales Force?
The number of pharmaceutical sales representatives has increased sharply in recent years. More than 90,000 representatives compete for the attention of 650,000 practicing physicians, only 125,000 of whom are top-tier prescribers. Some people, maybe physicians most of all, hope that online detailing (eDetailing) will reduce the number of office visits from all these pharmaceutical sales representatives chasing after the same docs. This article reviews a presentation on this provocative topic made by David Hauben, Director of eBusiness at Aventis Pharmaceuticals.
Implications of Facebook's Page Commenting Changes
A discussion with Jonathan Richman, Group Director, Insights and Planning at Possible Worldwide about Facebook's changes to its commenting policies and his recommendations for pharma marketers who wish to develop Facebook pages.
Industry and Consumer Advocates Square Off Regarding Social Media
This article presents an overview of the types of organizations that submitted comments versus those that made presentations at the November 2009 public hearing. It also includes general comments from the pharma industry regarding the process by which the FDA should regulate the Internet and social media. Also presented in this article are the comments submitted by consumer advocates and individuals who generally supported more strict regulation across the board.
Integrating Online & Offline Marketing: Challenges for Pharma
Many pharmaceutical companies are currently absorbing their e-business units and personnel back into the brand teams. This may be a glass is half-empty versus half-full situation. Someone who looks upon the glass as half-full is Bruce W. Bunyan, Senior Director & General Manager at Aventis Behring, the therapeutic proteins business of Aventis. This article includes a case study based on Bunyan's experience on how Aventis Behring brought together the online and offline marketing mix within his company. He frankly discussed the obstacles he faced and claimed "he learns more from his mistakes than from his successes." It is obvious, however, that Aventis Behring is on the right track in overcoming the challenges.
New online strategies have made eSampling a tool for significantly expanding targeted physician and sample coverage. Applications include accelerating new product uptake, efficiently maintaining physician coverage for mature brands, covering hard to reach physicians and driving patient demand.
Despite the fact that physician usage of the Internet has increased over the past few years, solid evidence for the reasons they access the Internet or, more importantly, if the knowledge they gained from online CME presentations has any impact on their practice is still largely unknown.
Let's Respond to FDA's Questions Regarding Its Regulation of Social Media
On Monday, September 21, 2009, the FDA published a notice in the Federal Register calling for a public hearing on the Promotion of Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools.
The FDA is requesting the public to submit comments to a series of specific questions, which are included in a new survey created by Pharma Marketing Network/News. Let's use this survey to help educate the FDA on the issues.
Mapping New Paths through the DTC Marketing Mix Maze
In this article, David Kweskin, Senior Vice President and Practice Area Leader, Brand and Communications Division, TNS, explains how his company helps marketers look across the full spectrum of media -- traditional media like radio, TV, print -- and and gives them a common way of measuring them against new media like blogs and word of mouth. Meanwhile, Morgan Lozier, Director, Web Evaluation Brand and Communications Division, TNS, presents a review of 3 erectile dysfunction product websites to illustrate what the online DTC experience should look like. He finds one winner among the contenders
Measuring Consumer Sentiment About Prescription Drugs
At a recent Pharma Marketing Talk podcast, John Mack spoke with Mark DePaoli, life sciences analyst at BrandIntel, an online information service, about mining CGC to evaluate consumer sentiment about pharmaceuticals. This article summarizes that discussion and presents a case study analysis comparing consumer sentiment of Botox vs. Restalyne.
This article is a review of a presentation by Aaron Uydess, Senior eMarketing Manager at Novo Nordisk, made at Eye for Pharma's 3rd eCommunication and Online Marketing Summit held October 23-24, 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts. Uydess presents a best-in-class approach to developing online plans that align with strategy, reduce silos, and measure and merchandise digital strategies across a pharmaceutical marketing organization.
Medical Device Marketing: Worlds Apart from Rx Drug Marketing
Medical device marketing is different than Rx drug marketing, which is something attendees of the recent PharmaMed Marketing & Media Conference hosted by Med Ad News learned.
This article summarizes a presentation from that conference and discusses how medical device marketing to consumers and physicians is different than Rx drug marketing. While some device marketing campaigns take a page from the Rx arena, there are difficulties and roadblocks ahead and these are also summarized in this article.
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Merck Rejiggers Its Marketing Mix
Adam Schechter, President of Merck US Human Health, made this statement not long ago at a Goldman Sachs healthcare conference: 'Industry must embrace new ways of engaging physicians on their terms.'
Topics covered include:
Merck to Slash Field Force?
Consumer Media Consumption Habits vs. Media Spend (Google chart)
Customer Focus Means More Technology
Engaging Customers on Their Terms
Impact vs. Risk Analysis of Physician Marketing Channels (chart)
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Midwestern eMarketing Values
On the Internet it's still about content, content, content. Some may consider this old-fashioned. But Siren Interactive, a midwestern interactive eMarketing firm, believes that valuable Internet content is a prime component to an effective eMarketing strategy for pharmaceutical companies.
A conversation with Jacqueline Thong, co-founder and CEO of Ubiqi Health, about disease management mobile applications and how pharma marketers can leverage mobile health apps to engage with and learn from patients.
New Media Privacy Issues & Online Health Marketing
Privacy Groups Focus on the Pharmaceutical Industry
Recently, online privacy issues have been in the news as Congress exams whether it should enact legislation requiring a do-not-track function in Web browsers to allow consumers to opt out of the extensive data collection by Internet companies. This article is a summary of A Center for Digital Democracy complaint filed with the FTC and a review of the issues. The article also includes a compilation of more than two dozen 'innovative" online marketing products/solutions mentioned in the complaint.
The pharmaceutical industry must find ways to utilize the new media tools that other industries use while ensuring compliance with FDA regulations. The good news is we can! The author summaries the content of the book and offers practical guidelines for the pharma marketers.
Envision Solutions and TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony teamed up to write a white paper, which summarized a new social media monitoring and marketing regulatory framework for pharmaceutical companies. This article takes a critical look at the Framework and offers further insights into the regulatory issues it raises.
This article looks at data regarding online CME - number of physicians doing CME online, etc. It also includes a case study of a popular pharma-sponsored online CME program, which highlights the necessary ingredients for success.
This article presents a summary of comments to FDA from the drug industry addressing regulatory concerns when using social media tools associated with space limitations or tools that allow for real-time communications to present product information.
The significance of search marketing in the overall pharmaceutical marketing mix cannot be overstated. Search is one of the fastest-growing categories of online advertising and pharmaceutical marketers need to have a good search strategy. The question is, should paid inclusion be part of that strategy? This article summarizes the issue of paid inclusion and presents results of the recent online Pharma Search Engine Marketing Survey, which was conducted by Pharma Marketing News between March 2, 2006 and March 25, 2006.
Return on DTC investment is decreasing and in the post-Vioxx marketing environment in which pharma marketers find themselves, there is a call for less advertising and more education. There are several new strategies and solutions available to pharmaceutical marketers that are designed to increase the education quotient of pharma marketing communications. One such solution is wireless Webpad developed by Phreesia for deployment in doctors' offices.
Personalized e-Marketing - How can you create and profit from a customer's lifetime experience?
Instead of talking about CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Philippe Barzin, former Director of Connectivity at Johnson & Johnson, focused on HRM or "Healthcare Relationship Management." While CRM focuses on a single customer at any one point in time, HRM focuses on supporting the customer across multiple channels - Web, email, call center, field visits - and over a lifetime. Considering the physician customer first, Barzin cited research showing that physicians value many sources of contact with pharma companies and actually find online sources less valuable than offline! To demonstrate the effectiveness of "customer-oriented surround marketing" and personalization, Barzin used BabyCenter, a J&J consumer-focused web site, as a case study.
Has It Been Found? What Does It Reveal About Pfizer's Social Media Implementation Plan?
Ray Kerins (@raykerins), Vice President of Worldwide Communications at Pfizer, talks about Pfizer's 'groundbreaking internal Social Media Playbook' but won't show it to us. What can be in the playbook? How many people does Pfizer dedicate to social media? This article discusses those questions and offers a peek into a playbook contender.
Pfizer has become the latest drug company to offer doctors the option of using the Internet to order free samples of its drugs, a trend illustrating the diminished role of sales representatives, whose ranks continue to decrease. The service is called SamplesDirect.
Were Guidelines Held Hostage as Part if FDA's and DOJ's Criminal Investigation of Google?
Were FDA's infamous 14 warning letters to pharma a ploy to force Google into a $500M DOJ settlement regarding illegal online pharmacy ads? In addition, could FDA have been holding back issuing pharma social media guidelines -- which would include guidelines for displayig compliant information in space-limited applications such as Twitter AND Google Adwords -- until Google settled its case with the DOJ?
John Mack, a.k.a. pharmaguy on Twitter, answers questions about his background and provides his opinions on how pharmaceutical companies will use social media in the future.
This article focuses in some detail on three interesting pharma social media initiatives: (1) Procter & Gamble's Asacol Community for Ulcerative Colitis Patients; (2) Novo Nordisk's Levemir-branded Race With Insulin Twitter account; and (3) UCB's sponsored epilepsy community on the PatientsLikeMe website. One of these is a good example of how pharma marketers can leverage social media, one is bad, and the other is just plain ugly! In baseball, one hit out of three at-bats isn't bad, but for marriages and social pharmaceutical marketing it's not that good.
Pharmaguy's Twitter Followers: What Do They Want and How Is It Relevant to You?
Pharmaguy (aka John Mack) now has over 4,900 (as of November, 2009) followers and these followers are probably the same followers you'd like to have if and when you get involved in Twitter. But hurry! Breaking in as a power user may be difficult. Research shows a virtuous cycle may exist, making popular users ever more popular.
This article summarizes the findings of a survey of over 400 of @pharmaguy's followers. The results will give you a better idea why people interested in the pharmaceutical industry use Twitter and what they expect to get out of it.
In this guest article, author Richard Meyer, Senior eMarketing Manager, Medtronic, summarizes some of the key findings of the recent eMarketer report 'Pharmaceutical Marketing Online: Stuck in Web 1.5.'
An Interview with eMarketer Senior Analyst Lisa Phillips.
eMarketer, a company that analyses trends related to e-business, projects pharmaceutical companies will increase their Internet spending by about 25% this year, to $780 million, as marketers shift from consumer mass marketing to more targeted opportunities on the Internet. By 2008, online spending will rise to $1.3 billion, according to eMarketer's new report, "Pharmaceuticals Online: Direct-to-Patient Becomes a Reality."
To better understand these numbers and other information presented in the eMarketer report, PMN interviewed Lisa Phillips, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the report.
Pharma, Physicians, and Sermo: A Social Media Win-Win-Win!
A Social Media Win-Win-Win!
This article provides an overview of Sermo's new Client Center and summarizes a Pharma Marketing Talk podcast interview of with Daniel Palestrant, Sermo's Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
In this guest article, Carla Stratfold, CEO at OnRequest Images, presents several key learnings and best practices that pharmas can follow when building brand and consumer loyalty.
This article summarizes the aggregate findings of the Rate Your Social Media Marketing Readiness survey and presents the average scores against which you can compare your own score.
Mind-Boggling Communications Vs. Mind-Numbing Resistance
This article, written by health communications veteran, Harry Sweeney, is a frank assessment of the pharmaceutical industy's plodding approach to e-communication and e-marketing based on a review of a recent industry conference.
Who It Consists of, How It Formed, and Its Role in Driving FDA Guidance
This article reviews the Who, What, and Why of Pharma's Social Media Working Group (SMWG) based on a conversation with Mark Gaydos, Senior Director, U.S. Regulatory Affairs Marketed Products at sanofi-aventis, and Cynthia Phillips, Sr Dir Labeling and Promotional Compliance at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Also covered is an analysis of comments the SMWG submitted to the FDA on how pharmaceutical companies should handle off-label and adverse event posts made on social media sites owned or sponsored by them.
More and more pharmaceutical company employees are using Twitter. Pharmaguy is looking at pharma employees who have personal Twitter accounts, how they use these accounts, who follows them and whom they follow, and how influential they are. This article is an introduction to the first round of members of this group.
A Record of Social Media Events Impacting the Pharmaceutical Industry
The long-awaited social media guidance from the FDA -- whenever it arrives -- may turn out to be nothing more than a stamp of approval on activities in which the industry is currently engaged. Practically every issue that FDA guidance is expected to address has already been handled independently by a few pioneering pharmaceutical companies. Rather than waiting for FDA's anti climatic guidelines, Pharmaguy decided to publish The Pharmaguy Social Media Timeline™ now, at a time when the industry already has set precedents in every social media application.
From the Audition in the Press to TV, Web, and Print Advertising.
Pfizer and Amgen demonstrate how to launch a branded spokesperson campaign starting from a bit of over-the-top unregulated press relations to fully regulated TV, print, and Web advertising. It must be costing a mint!
This article highlights results of a survey of physician members of DocCheck, a leading European physician online social network and portal site. The survey assessed the type of networks used, the frequency of posting, motivation for posting, estimation of network usage, relevance of content posted and an evaluation of the importance of online physician-generated content in the future.
Physician Participation in Peer-to-Peer Social Media Sites
This article summaries research data exploring why physicians interested in using online peer-to-peer social communities outnumber by 2 to 1 physicians who are actually using them. Includes suggestions for what these communities must do in order to provide more value to physicians.
eDrugSearch has expanded its mission by unveiling its own Health 2.0 venture: the eDrugSearch.com Community, which is a new social network for prescription drug consumers. The eDrugSearch.com Community hopes to help members make choices that save them money, and keep them safe, when buying drugs online.
This articles reviews some of the features of this new Health 2.0 Web site.
Pharmaceutical companies can effectively implement e-marketing programs through strategic planning and by simply augmenting their traditional sales force, suggests Devin Paullin, vice president of operations at Physicians Interactive. Paullin outlines a 12-month strategy in which firms can proactively target physicians using electronic tools, or e-tools. He recommends that firms use traditional promotion solutions and modify those solutions using e-initiatives.
Product Branding, e-Marketing May Be Underutilized
Strengthened pharmaceutical branding and increased utilization of online marketing
tools can have a significant impact on the revenue and market value of pharmaceutical
firms, according to a presentation by Bill Trombetta, professor of pharmaceutical
strategy and marketing at The Erivan K. Haub School of Business at St. Joseph's
University.
Quality of Pharma-sponsored Health Information on the Internet
With all the bad press recently about marketing directly to consumers and privacy concerns, perhaps it is time for the pharmaceutical industry to self-regulate marketing to consumers as well, especially via the Internet. What is the attitude of pharmaceutical professionals regarding the quality of pharma-sponsored health information on the Net? Does the industry perceive a problem in this area? To help answer this question, an online survey - Quality of Pharma-Sponsored Health Information on the Internet - was performed during the month of January, 2003. The results are summarized in this article.
Arnold Friede, counsel to the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and former Senior Counsel at Pfizer, believes that there is an opportunity now to make a strong and compelling argument for the adoption of rational regulatory policies by the FDA that address the unique features not only of sponsored links, but of other kinds of new communication tools, such as social media.
Ready or Not: Gearing Up for the Expansion of ePrescribing
In a keynote address at a recent ePharma Summit conference held in Philadelphia, PA, Kevin Hutchinson, CEO and President of SureScripts, a company founded by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association, looked at the changing landscape and inevitability of electronic prescribing (ePrescribing or eRx) and the implications and opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry.
SPECIAL! Includes: Pfizer's Principles for Assuring Quality of Care by Electronic Prescribing Systems
This article discusses the potential pitfalls, regulatory issues, and best practices regarding the use of real patient testimonials based on comments collected from a recent survey of readers and other experts.
Pharma marketers save a bundle repurposing videos for Youtube.
They save even more money by hiring real patients to play themselves in these videos! Patients are natural method actors, having actually experienced what they portray. But they are prone to over emote!
This article summarizes key presentations made at the April 21, 2009, Social Pharmer 'unconference' where leading pahram social media proponents presnted ideas on how the industry can overcome the barriers.
The Role of Tablet PCs in Pharma Sales and Marketing
This article summarizes different aspects of this latest innovation in portability and performance and how they could be used to increase sales force effectiveness in both the primary care and hospital-based environments.
Steve Woodruff, Founder and Principal Consultant of Impactiviti, and John Mack team up to review eyeforpharmas Sales Effectiveness conference, which was co-located with the eCommunication & Online Marketing Conference.
In this article, Julie Batten, eMarketing Manager at Klick Pharma discusses pharma's options for search marketing in this period between the FDA public hearing and when the much anticipated draft and final guidance on the issue is published.
Yahoo's record earnings and Google's IPO announcement are hot financial stories, but they also herald an important trend that is changing the way marketers think about the interactive channel. Search Engine Marketing, also known as SEM or Search, is one of the fastest-growing e-marketing strategies today. The author covers SEM techniques such as Paid Search, Paid Inclusion, and Natural Search, and suggests that to stay ahead, companies must develop sophisticated content strategies to win the war of visibility.
Social Communications in Healthcare: Summary of Roundtable Discussions
At the Social Communications in Healthcare conference hosted by the Business Development Institute in NYC on July 23, 2009, there were so many people live Tweeting the case study presentations that it's hardly worth the effort to summarize these presentations after the fact. You can find a good summary--if only in dozens of 140-character packets--on Twitter.
An excellent gauge of the state of social communications in healthcare may be had from summaries of the round table discussions moderated by experts after the case study presentations. After a short introduction, this article provides several summaries written by the roundtable discussion leaders themselves
This article reviews the results of Pharma Marketing News' 'What's Your Social Media Implementation Plan?' survey and announces the details of the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award.
PR people are used to issuing press releases to a few journalists at the top of the traditional news pyramid. When the top was blown off by the social media revolution, these professionals had no proven mechanism by which to reach the many thousands of bloggers at the BOTTOM of the pyramid -- until now.
This article presents ideas for regulatory 'safe harbors' under which pharmaceutical companies would be relieved of the responsibility of monitoring social media for adverse events. Includes a detailed summary of responses to the survey 'FDA Regulation of Drug & Device Promotion via the Internet & Social Media' regarding social media adverse event monitoring, processing, challenges, and uncertainties.
This article summarizes the recent Digital Pharma Europe congress where it was the time right to see that European pharma marketers are also interested in new/social/digital media in pharma, but may be more constrained by regulators than their brethern in the US.
Solving the Social Media Adverse Event Reporting Problem
Many presenters at FDA's November 2009 public hearing on the Promotion of Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools addressed this problem and offered solutions. Comments submitted to the FDA after the meeting offer more details, which are reviewed in this article.
Translate Industry Trends into the Optimal Promotional Strategy
Get Out from Behind the Desk, Listen to the Customer
This is a summary of a recent presentation by David L. Stern, Vice President of Marketing for Metabolic and Endocrinology at Serono, Inc. Stern spoke from a marketer's perspective about recent trends in the pharmaceutical industry and how to address them by developing better marketing programs.
The Twelve Steps of Pharma Social Marketers Anonymous
Welcome to Pharma Social Marketers Anonymous (PSMA)! You are among friends. Soon, you will take important steps on the path to overcoming your fear of social media. The first step is to admit you are powerless over social media and that your online life has become unmanageable. Are you ready to take ALL 12 steps toward recovery?
This article summarizes the results of a survey designed to answer the questions: Should the pharmaceutical industry adopt similar self-regulatory principles that were established by media and marketing trade associations to protect consumer privacy when employing behavioral targeting, Should pharma marketers use behavioral targeting at all?, If they do use it, when is it appropriate?
This article is a summary of the EPG Health Media (part of the IMR International Group) market research report 'Social Media and Healthcare,' which examines how European doctors, patients/consumers and pharma engage (and seek to engage) with each other.
Should Pharma Fill the HCP-to-Patient Social Media Vacuum?
Twitter has often been hyped as a great way to support customers. The customers of pharma are physicians and patients. But pharma Twitter accounts offer very little in terms of patient support. This article summarizes a survey that asked respondents to evaluate several ways in which Twitter could be used to improve patient support.
The View From ePharma Summit: Practicing What Was Being Preached!
This article is a compilation of summaries of presentations made at the 2009 ePharma Summit. Included are highlights posted to the ePharma Summit and other blogs during the conference and insights on epharma marketing issues provided by several conference speakers and attendees.
Pharmaceutical marketers are having a field day pushing the envelope on the Internet and especially in the social networking, Web 2.0 arena -- the new WILD, WILD WEST of the Internet. Many, however, are getting caught trying to perform the 'tricks of the trade.' With just a little bit of guidance and tips from the masters, you can perform these tricks WITHOUT getting caught!
Disease management is a complex process for pharmaceutical manufacturers, but Internet-based programs can help drive market share, sales growth, and patient compliance.
Cedric Tuck-Sherman, director of eBusiness for Baxter BioScience, discussed his company's experience with creating and managing a web-based therapy management program for chronic diseases during a recent Patient Persistence, Compliance and Education seminar sponsored by EyeforPharma.
What If There Were No Rules in Pharma Marketing? There's no FDA, no DDMAC, no FTC. Your company guidelines and rules don't exist and your regulatory and legal teams have been disbanded. It's a free-for-all and there are no rules. The question is: what would you do?
Although the CAN-SPAM law is often portrayed as a white knight that will save us from dastardly e-mail spammers and pornographers, many of its provisions cover all commercial e-mail, even permission-based, opt-in e-mail. It is also applicable to B2B e-mail communications and one-to-one commercial e-mail messages such as e-mail from sales representatives to physicians.
This article reviews a presentation by Elizabeth W. Boehm, Forrester Research Analyst in which she presented multiple data sets, including results from Forrester's Technographics Benchmark Study and eDetailing Survey.
SPECIAL!
Case Studies and Reviews featuring innovative Products and Services for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Sales. Presents Practical Solutions from leading vendors and suppliers.
Pharma Marketing News is the periodic electronic newsletter of the Pharma
Marketing Network (www.pharma-mkting.com). Pharma Marketing Network
is an exclusive marketing information resource and communications
network for pharmaceutical marketing professionals.
Each issue of Pharma Marketing News is packed with facts,
opinions, and case studies based upon interviews with experts in
the field of pharmaceutical marketing. Highlights of presentations
from industry conferences and links to references help subscribers keep up to date on best
practices and network with their peers.
