Tag Archives: Facebook

This week around the Web in healthcare news

Posted on November 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

Betting that money is more persuasive than words, more employers vow to use financial rewards and penalties to prod their workers to fitness in 2012. Employers have seen serious problems related to obesity, she said, including higher rates of depression, absenteeism, low productivity and more medical claims. An overweight employee costs employers $5,000 more a year in health costs than a healthy-weight individual. The survey of 335 employers found that the share of companies that used financial rewards in health management programs increased to 54% in 2011 from 36% in 2009. In 2012, about 80% of companies plan to offer financial rewards. Continue reading →

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Posted in Weekly news

Tagged British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Facebook, Kenneth F. Simpson, Netherlands, Social media, Twitter, Tylenol, University Medical Center Utrecht

Pharma insiders continue to poison the industry

Posted on November 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

Merck & Co will pay roughly $950 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it promoted the painkiller drug Vioxx for an unapproved use, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. What is really disappointing is that nobody is going to he held personally responsible and things like this will continue to happen as long as pharma continues to hire industry insiders with a spotty track record at best. Continue reading →

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Posted in Bad practices, Business of the drug industry

Tagged Facebook, Marketing, Merck, Merck & Co, Pharmaceutical lobby, Rofecoxib, United States Department of Justice, Vioxx

When numbers are more important than patients

Posted on November 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

According to today’s Times: When Pfizer cut its research budget this year and laid off 1,100 employees, it was not because the company needed to save money. In fact, the drug maker had so much cash left over, it decided to buy back an additional $5 billion worth of stock on top of the $4 billion already earmarked for repurchases in 2011 and beyond. Continue reading →

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Posted in Business of the drug industry

Tagged Facebook, Harvard Business School, Medtronic, Merck & Co, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical industry, Pharmaceutical lobby, Wall Street

The future of healthcare is visible but requires new ways of thinking

Posted on November 10, 2011 | 5 Comments

An editorial in today’s Times asks “WHY can’t Americans tap into the ingenuity that put men on the moon, created the Internet and sequenced the human genome to revitalize our economy and consumer health?” The editorial says that “we are in the early phases of the next big technology-driven revolution, which I call “consumer health.” When fully unleashed, it could radically cut health care costs and become a huge global growth market.” The answers are both complicated and simple but at their core they require a new way of thinking about marketing and health. Continue reading →

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Posted in Contrarians POV

Tagged Bill Gates, Consumer, Facebook, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, iPad, Pharmaceutical industry, United States

Why doesn’t pharma use the Internet more ?

Posted on November 7, 2011 | 3 Comments

A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that one in five Americans uses the Internet to find people with similar health concerns. For people with chronic illnesses, it’s one in four. Yet what we find more often than not are pharma product websites that are stuck in time in Web 1.0. Sure some of them use video on their websites but for the most part pharma product websites are a combination of a sell sheet and product label. Continue reading →

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Posted in Focus on patients

Tagged Facebook, Food and Drug Administration, Internet marketing, Marketing, Master of Business Administration, Television advertisement, United States, Website

Huh? Really bad online advertising

Posted on October 11, 2011 | 5 Comments

I came across this online ad for Vyvanse and thought frankly that it was really bad. First you don’t need fair balance because the product does not mention what it treats but beyond that what the hell is this ad supposed to convey to people? Do the think that people are going to click on an ad when they have no idea what the hell the product is for ? Continue reading →

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Posted in Prescription drug DTC marketing

Tagged Advertising, Business, Display advertising, Facebook, Google, Internet marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Online advertising

How can pharma innovate without new blood ?

Posted on September 21, 2011 | 3 Comments

Great post on Twitter yesterday from Jonathan Richman yesterday when he said “Not nearly enough people raised their hand when asked if they look outside healthcare for innovation ideas.” With companies like Merck continuing to layoff thousands of people one has to wonder who is going to be left to innovate marketing at a time when pharma marketing is in dire need of innovation ? Continue reading →

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Posted in Working in the industry

Tagged AIDS, Facebook, Innovation, Marketing, Sanofi-Aventis, Twitter

The circle remains unbroken (pharma conferences)

Posted on September 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

OK, you knew this was coming. A conference for pharma agency people sponsored by a PR firm who not too long ago didn’t get social media and a person who has never launched a drug or worked on an approved drug. I spent most of the morning reading the Tweets from the conference and again more general obvious generalities along with social media Kool-Aid. I recently talked to a Senior VP in commercialization and I can understand why he feels that agencies are in trouble because “they’re not adding the right value to the mix”. Continue reading →

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Posted in Contrarians POV

Tagged Ellen, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Patient, Public relations, Social media, Twitter

Is pharma going to ever make the leap ?

Posted on September 17, 2011 | 2 Comments

Will pharma marketers every learn that today it’s about wellness to consumers ? Look at the DTC ads and very few talk about product benefits that communicate wellness to consumers. They usually talk about product benefits and today that’s not enough to get consumers to take the required steps and ask their physician for an Rx. Continue reading →

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Posted in Focus on patients

Tagged Atorvastatin, Consumer, Facebook, Health care provider, Marketing, Patient, Pharmaceutical drug, Social media

STOP ! Social media is not the answer

Posted on September 8, 2011 | 4 Comments

In an era where most consumers do not want to connect with drug companies on social media and where most drug companies don’t have the resources to talk to people via social media I am amazed at how people within the drug industry continue to trumpet social media marketing. Social media is not the answer because that is not the question that consumers and customers are asking. Continue reading →

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Posted in Social media and healthcare

Tagged Business, Facebook, Internet marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social media, Social media marketing, Twitter

An opportunity to earn the trust of consumers (pharma trust barometer)

Posted on August 30, 2011 | 4 Comments

Well at least the pharma industry is not at the bottom of the list. Gallup has released a new poll on which industries consumers have positive, neutral and negative views. The bad news is that pharma is once again near the bottom and, according to Gallup, has slipped 3% to a negative rating of 43%. While agency people continue to call for pharma to use social media they probably have not yet learned that a key element of social media engagement is trust. When almost half of consumers view your industry negatively social media marketing is not going to make any difference. Continue reading →

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Posted in Business of the drug industry

Tagged Facebook, Food and Drug Administration, Gallup, Marketing, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical industry, Social media, Social media marketing