Facebook closed wall: several Pharma to close down their pages

Pharmaceutical companies have lost the right to block public comments on their company page walls.  The privilege was previously granted exclusively to pharmaceutical companies who had been slow to set up company pages on the social media site.  

Several companies (AstraZeneca, J&J, etc.) have already closed down pages, expressing concern about the extra resources that will be required to monitor activity.

Sources:
http://www.infotoday.eu/Articles/News/Featured-News/Facebook-revokes-pharma-’closed-wall’-privileges-77151.aspx 
http://www.dailytech.com/Facebook+Revokes+Drug+Companies+Use+of+Closed+Page+Walls/article22447.htm

Pharma on the Web: pressures and failures

An excellent article: pressure of Big Pharmas on FaceBook and globally, a failure of ads on the web.

The pharmaceutical industry is new to advertising (…) but it’s even farther behind when it comes to the Web. Despite people turning online in droves to find medical information, pharma marketers are hamstrung by federal regulations, and frustration is setting in. (…)

These sites claim that after convening on these issues in 2009, the FDA has been disturbingly silent on this issue, which has caused brands to resist embracing the medium. (…)

 “Pharma is online, but not to the extent it could be. The Internet is really a failure for pharma ads.” (…)

 But an even more pressing issue — … — is social media. According to the current federal standards, drug brands are obligated to respond to each and every comment a user makes about one of its products, whether within a community forum, along side an add on or a social site. And with so many content sites now infused with social functionality, the problem has become exacerbated, say industry veterans.

As a result, (…) some brands like Pfizer chose to disable comments on its Facebook page.

 This issue is of such importance that in the past two months executives from both Pfizer and Merck met with Facebook to explore whether those brands might be able to monitor comments before they are posted on the site — something Facebook officials are not crazy about, per sources.

 (…) The FDA had promised some sort of revised official guidelines on advertising in social media for pharma brands by Q1 of this year (…). But (it) still waiting. (…)

 Until those guidances are indeed issued, the industry has to do some guessing, … , which doesn’t exactly encourage big spending. (…)

 But the biggest drawback to pharma advertising is the social factor, which increasingly pops its head up everywhere, requiring brands to watch everything a user utters about their drug. (…)

 Some pharma brands just simply need to become more comfortable with risk (…)

 2011 is really a make or break year for pharma on the Web. Either sit out or take steps…

 Shields, Mike. Pharma’s stuck in Web’s waiting room. DIGIDAY, Online: Posted on 27^th of June, 2011.
http://www.digidaydaily.com/stories/pharma-039-s-stuck-in-web-039-s-waiting-room/

To confirm that FaceBook will not play the Big Pharma’s game:

“Facebook, the ubiquitous social media platform, recently announced that, as of August 15, 2011, pharmaceutical companies will be unable to disable the comment feature on their pages, and all pre-existing pages for pharmaceutical brand companies will be required to allow comments on their pages after August 15”
According:
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f6c92de6-afcc-485e-be9b-c3f14c3021b8

Consumers don’t want to socialize with Pharmas

Women rule the Internet and rule the search for health information online but a relationship with pharmaceutical company is at the bottom of their list according to eMarketer. Women rule the Internet and rule the search for health information online but a relationship with pharmaceutical company is at the bottom of their list according to eMarketer. Why ? Well, let’s ask a basic question; What is the value that pharma brings to the conversation (…)

Pharma marketers have to ask a basic question of their audience which is “how can we provide value to you and start to talk ?”   One of the areas of opportunity is to provide clear and transparent health information but pharma has not yet learned how to embrace transparency.

Marketers have to remember that social media is not going to save their brand and lead to a lot of new business regardless of what some agency people would have you believe.  However patients are having the conversation and having trouble finding reliable health information.  There is a great opportunity for pharma to become the credible source of good health information and thus become part of the conversation but it’s going to take a new way of thinking about patients and consumers.

Rich. Do consumers want to have a social media relationship with pharmas? World of DTC marketing. Posted on 12th of June 2011.
http://worldofdtcmarketing.com/do-consumers-want-to-have-a-social-media-relationship-with-pharma/health-informatio

Resource: Enterprise 2.0 for Pharmas

Brilliant argumentation of 6 disruptive trends to industry, including Pharma.

1. Information overload
2. Limited access to interactive technologies
3. Cloud computing
4. Generation gap
5. Social, social, social
6. The Network society

Anyway, “Most companies still have an organisational structure designed for the 20th century: hierarchical, directive, silo-structured and sales-driven (aka Enterprise 1.0).

Especially in our ‘knowledge-intensive companies’ we need to mobilize the minds of our workforce in such way that we offer them freedom to do their jobs, give them access to information, provide them with a network that enables them to connect with peers and the likeminded and stimulate collaboration and co-creation (aka Enterprise 2.0).

Not only will such company create an environment that motivates people and retains talent, it also will lead to an increase in net income per employee.”

Van den Bos, René. Enterprise 2.0: part 2 – the world around us has changed, forever. In PharmaForum, Online. Posted on May 10, 2011.
http://www.pharmaphorum.com/2011/05/10/enterprise-2-0-part-2-–-the-world-around-us-has-changed-forever/

Pharmas: consumers complain on FaceBook

A good study case happened in the U.S. this week, as it is mentioned by CreationHealthCare.

The launch of a Facebook page by pregnant mothers in the USA angry about KV Pharmaceuticals’ pricing of its newly FDA-approved synthetic progesterone product, Makena, raises once again the urgent need for pharmaceutical companies to plan ahead for social media engagement. (…)

This is not the first time that mothers angry at the behavior of pharmaceutical companies have used social media to voice their outrage. (…).

The reach and speed of a platform like Facebook completely change the environment in which corporate and brand communicators operate.

Here are just a few ways in which social media is different from traditional media:

• The ‘journalists’ of social media do not call your press line to ask you for a quote before they publish
• Social media publishers ‘go to press’ at any time of day or night
• Compelling stories have the potential to achieve huge reach very quickly – before you have even woken up
• In social media, everybody has a voice, instantly.

Ghinn, Daniel. “shame on you” : an emerging pharma social media crisis. CreationHealthCare, 17th of March 2011.
http://creationhealthcare.com/articles/an-emerging-pharma-social-media-crisis-happening-now/

Pharmas & social media policy: “it’s fairly urgent”

The FDA regards social media as an advertising tool for the pharma industry, which means that any company that doesn’t have a social media policy in place, or has a policy deemed insufficient, puts itself (and the public) at potential risk, says Attorney Anand Agneshwar.

“The FDA likely will address adverse event reporting in the social media guidance it will shortly issue“…

How urgent is it that companies institute social media policies?
“In this rapidly evolving area, it’s fairly urgent. Company professionals may be active on LinkedIn, employees may discuss company products—or their managers—on blogs, and whistleblowers undoubtedly will look to the Internet. Companies must have carefully thought-through policies to manage these and other eventualities“.

Sirk, Kimberly. Drawing the web tighter. Drug Discovery News, March 2011. pp. 40-41.
http://www.drugdiscoverynews.com/index.php?newsarticle=4738

Conference: Social Media in the pharmaceutical industry

After a first successful edition in January, SMi is announcing the second edition in July, in London, of this conference 100% focused on social media applicability for pharmas and health organisations.

Great agenda with key speakers from: J&J, Pfizer, Bayer, etc.

http://www.smi-online.co.uk/events/overview.asp?is=4&ref=3498

Update on 04/03/11: the latest agenda version
social_media_pharma_industry_conference_london_2011_july

Social Media standard for Big Pharmas

A good paper I missed in last october:

“Roche has moved to master the hazard-prone digital communications space with a new set of internal guidelines on when, where, and how to apply social media tools to communicate with key stakeholders and the public.

The initiative is a novelty for Big Pharma—Roche says it is the first in the industry to go public with a transparent standard for online behavior—

The guidance relies on simple “common sense” language, but carves new ground in making explicit the need to:

1) Differentiate between using social media in a personal versus professional context;

2) Build clarity in speaking about the company and on behalf of it, through third parties; and

3) Advocate for employees to serve as “scouts” in tapping networks to identify “sentiment and critical issues.”

The document has been welcomed—if not widely celebrated—by the digital pharma community as a good example of corporate transparency and openness.

Perhaps the most talked about point in the principles is the call for employees to act as scouts.

It is inevitable that other Big Pharma companies will try to build on the document and follow the Roche lead.”

Upton, Julian. Roche sets a New social Media Standard. Pharmaceutical Executive, Online, Oct. 1, 2010.
http://pharmexec.findpharma.com/pharmexec/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=690975&sk=&date=&%0A%09%09%09&pageID=2

Big Pharmas remain cautious using social media

A recent survey by Deloitte shows that big pharmas are still relunctant to engage massively into social media.

The use of social networks has exploded over the past few years:

• one in three Americans research their condition online use social networks
• 60% of physicians are using or are interested in using social networks for professional purposes
• SERMO, the dedicated SN for physicians, is a real success

 Anyway, life sciences companies lag firms in other industries in their social networks presence. Only 11% of Pharmaceuticals Fortune100 are on Facebook; 33% have blogs; and 22% are on Twitter.

Currently, half of surveyed life sciences professionals do not have plans to use social networks.
Reasons are:
#1 Respondents perceive lack of regulatory guidance (from FDA) as the biggest barrier to adoption

#2 Patients’/consumers’ wish for privacy

#3 Lack of demonstrable Return on Investment

To Friend or not?  New insights about social networks in the Life science industry. Deloitte, white paper. Dec. 2010. Online:
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/life-sciences/eb84853b4eb0d210VgnVCM3000001c56f00aRCRD.htm

What can SharePoint do for Big Pharmas?!

A lot of critical things, according the Blue Reference blog…

GSK, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, Novartis, etc. have already adopted the Microsoft’s platform.

Many pharmaceutical companies are considering using SharePoint as the basis for the collaboration/outsourcing tool.

Blue reference offers specific add-ons which compensates some lacks of SharePoint, especially core-business capabilities needed in a scientific environment like pharmaceutical R&D.

http://blueref.wordpress.com/