Articles

Usually, at this time of the year, editors look back on the major stories of the past year. Let's be different and look forward to the New Year!

Pharma Marketing News is the monthly e-newsletter of the Pharma Marketing Network (www.pharma-mkting.com). It 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, contact lists for experts consulted, and links to references help susbcribers keep up to date on best practices and network with their peers.

There are powerful lobbyists, including employers, insurers, AARP, and Public Citizen, with an anti-DTC agenda in Washington. The criticism takes many forms - increases in drug prices, increase in inappropriate prescribing, etc. Republicans have gained control, but some committee chairs are DTC critics.

The pharmaceutical industry should not be caught undermining the 'Chinese wall' between editorial content and advertising that reputable media take pains to maintain. Especially considering that the pharma industry itself has been accused of a less than stellar record of maintaining separation between education and promotion to physicians and consumers.

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.

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.

All pharma companies face a communications crisis that rests on the changing role of the medical sales representative. This evolution has a direct impact on the obligations of the pharma marketing organizations to be both proactive and responsive in helping to protect their organizations from the threat of non-compliance. What can marketing do? This article offers a few thoughts from a physician's point.

You don't need a crystal ball to know that the future of media is mobile. While pharmaceutical companies may not yet be advertising on mobile devices as they do on TV, websites, and magazines, they are developing health apps that run on Droid smartphones, iPhones and iPads. Many observers feel that the pharma industry lags behind other industries as far as having a mobile strategy is concerned. One of the factors that may be holding back pharma in its pursuit of a mobile strategy is the loomimg sepecter of FDA regulations.

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.'

Welcome to the March 22, 2016, edition of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). PinUp is published every Tuesday and Friday as part of your Pharma Marketing News subscription service. It features curated pharma industry news and views of topical interest from a variety of sources.