Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16086

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Drug companies involvement in social media is contingent upon the risk they are willing to take to help patients
World of DTC Marketing 2009 Jul 23
http://www.worldofdtcmarketing.com/files/f9f1b239df35a33c249c60f13d1f99c9-754.html

Full text:

You can’t blaze new paths without going deep in the woods. If the drug industry really believes that social media can benefit patients than they should be willing to risk a letter from the FDA and fight back for its customers. Today it seems every drug company wants to stay far under the radar of the FDA even though the FDA might not understand new media and empowered patients. This approach is leading to marketing practices that are dated and does not consider what is best for the consumer. The real issue is can the drug industry use social media to inform and educate without a marketing person getting in the way and trying to sell someone.

Consumers do not trust drug company websites but when they are searching for health information their journey often takes them to a drug company website via search. Manhattan Research recently reported that more people are using the Internet for health information than ever before and more people are using social media than ever before yet for the most part the drug companies ignore social media and the Internet.

Research that I recently conducted with a client indicated that people do not necessarily want to have a conversation with a drug company on Twitter but the Facebook Gardasil page shows what can happen when social media is used to bring people together so they can learn about cervical cancer and preventative treatments. Not all medical conditions and prescription drugs are good candidates for social media but with health care costs rising and the biggest increases in healthcare costs due to consumer unhealthy lifestyles one would think that bringing people together to encourage one another would be great.

Good Medicine leads to good business

I really believe that statement above. If you have a good product that has good medicine behind it than the profits will follow but the drug industry does not sell tablets, capsules and vaccines they sell a better quality of life and need to solve problems of consumers rather than sell them on new allergy sprays.

Social media can be used, for example, to enhance compliance and persistence. Drug companies can direct people directly to web pages for help paying with prescription medications but more importantly they can finally educate consumers that the best referral for some of their drugs is when a patient doesn’t need a statin to control his cholesterol because he learned to eat healthier.

Social media has taken the marketing world by storm but I would argue that the Web has always been social. DTC marketers have largely ignored the Internet while they continue to believe that TV provides a better ROI than the Web. Being a realist I realize that marketing budgets are lean and mean today but that is more reason to move more marketing dollars to the Web and away from annoying TV spots like Omnaris (the Omnaris DTC is as bad as the Rozerem beaver and Abe Lincoln ads).

The real reason that the drug industry has not embraced social media is that they are afraid. DTC marketers are afraid of what their regulatory and legal people may say and executives are afraid of receiving a letter from the FDA. The result is that risk has been taken out of the equation and with it so has marketing innovation. A leader is willing to take risks to blaze new roads and trails and we desperately need some real leadership to challenge the FDA if they believe they are providing a service for patients and consumers.