Pharmaceutical Marketing News Bits

As most of you know, I also blog on the Publicis D Healthcare site. Check out some of the topics discussed on the blog this week:

• Changes to the Pharma Code of Marketing Practice in Ireland: The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) has announced strict updates to its industry Code of Marketing Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry.

• Video Consultations with Specialists Aid Treatment: The Archives of Dermatology this month published an interesting study on ‘teledermatology’ – the use of video conferencing to allow a primary care physician to ‘remote consult’ with a dermatologist – which had some interesting results.

• Pharmaceutical Sales Reps Gone Wild – A Docu-Spoof: Pharmaceutical sales is becoming a battle – survival of the fittest, the most engaging, those sales teams whose approach evolves to meet the needs of physicians. How are pharmaceutical reps coping in a rapidly changing environment? Check out this funny docu-spoof.

Johnson and Johnson Brings you Diary of a Vagina [Video]

Johnson and Johnson Gyno have created quite an interesting women’s health initiative. They’ve developed an integrated film campaign for the Chinese market which drives traffic to a microsite, www.xiaov.com (littleV.com). There ladies can log onto an online diary written by consumers about the most intimate of women’s issues – a diary written as the voice of a vagina.

Click here to view the video on Adsoftheworld.com.

Pharma Tweets Ruled in Breach UK Code of Practice

Despite moves by pharmaceutical industry regulators both here and abroad to clarify rules around use of social media, pharma companies remain wary of delving into the social networking site to promote their brand/campaigns. This reticence will not be helped by the announcement today that Bayer UK have become the first pharma company to breach the UK ABPI Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry through their use of Twitter.

@BayerUKIreland have tweeted just 93 times since Jan 25th 2010, posting news bites and links to PR materials. In March the company posted the controversial tweet: “First & only melt-in-the-mouth erectile dysfunction treatment launched by Bayer today http://tinyurl.com/6hfxymf” and linked to a UK press release announcing the launch of a new formulation of their ED drug, Levitra. This wasn’t the first time the company posted product-specific comments. Last year they tweeted about a product launch saying: “Sativex® launched in UK for the treatment of spasticity due to Multiple Sclerosis.”

When questioned by inpharm.com in March, Bayer UK’s PR and Media Relations Manager, Andrea Postles said that “All news releases are ABPI Code-approved before they are issued. Social media users only see our tweets if they have already elected to be ‘followers’.” However this wasn’t the case as their Twitter account was open to the public and regardless of their 521 followers (at the time); their tweets were publicly displayed and indexed by search engines.

Following online debate one anonymous ‘reporter from a healthcare publication’ took a complaint to the PMCPA about the promotional activity. Following a panel review of the case, the PMCPA reported that although the Levitra tweet did not cite the product’s name it “referred to its qualities, indication and launch“. Furthermore they said: “The Sativex tweet mentioned the brand name, indication and launch”.

The PMCPA ruled that the tweets breached the Code of Practice stating that “each tweet was in fact a public announcement about the launch of a prescription only medicine which promoted that medicine to the public and would encourage members of the public to ask their health professionals to prescribe it”.
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Digital Pharma Round-up – Social Media Moderation, Guidelines & Lobbying

A quick round-up of some of the recent digital news affecting the pharmaceutical sector posted on the M+C blog:

• Facebook Set to Prevent Comment Disabling on All Pages [Click here to read more]
• UK Get Guidance on Social Media for Pharma [Click here to read more]
• Boehringer leverages Twitter to lobby politicians [Click here to read more]

Digital Pharma – Inappropriate Physician Tweets & Top Health Apps

For those of you that don’t know, I also write a few bits and bobs on the M and C Group blog. The blog looks at all aspects of marketing, sales, design and communications with a particular focus on the healthcare sector. I write primarily on digital pharma.

A round-up of recent posts….

• Creative campaigns and Viagra – a potent mix [To read click here]
• These Apps are top of the charts [To read click here]
• AstraZeneca Host First Pharma-Sponsored Tweet Chat [To read click here]
• Report Finds Doctors Guilty of Inappropriate Tweets [To read click here]
• Digital and paper strategies work well for patient groups [To read click here]