Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1.2.6
The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces a Changing Media
Landscape in a Heavily Regulated Environment
Digital and social media have strongly affected many industries: publishing,
entertainment, and grocery retailing. They are also starting to have an increasingly
dramatic effect on the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical fi rms are used to com-
municating directly with the patient under strict regulatory conditions (in the USA,
New Zealand, and Canada) or to being prohibited from doing so (in the rest of the
world). Today's global social media challenge this regulatory environment. Online
and in social media, patients speak freely about their experiences with pharmaceutical
treatments. Some early efforts by fi rms to get engaged in social media (e.g., think of
Sanofi 's VOICES program) have shown this engagement not to be trivial for pharma-
ceutical fi rms. Sanofi 's attempt to delete and then preempt, on its online platform, the
entries of a cancer patient, who was being treated with a Sanofi drug and who conse-
quently experienced permanent baldness, has shocked public opinion.
At the same time, the context is so complicated that the FDA has been notori-
ously slow in releasing clear guidelines on how pharmaceutical fi rms should behave
online. Consequently, there is continuous discussion online about pharmaceutical
brands, while pharmaceutical fi rms are struggling with such questions as whether
they should get online or not; how much resources they should pour into it; which
platforms to use (Facebook, Patients Like Me) or to build one themselves; how
communication should be handled on such platforms: whether to do it themselves
or outsource to either an independent supplier or a subcontractor; what the goals are
to begin with; whether they should only listen, or only speak, or both; if they speak,
what will it be about; and, if and when they agree on clear goals, how they will
measure if they are getting a good ROI. It is complicated for any fi rm to start with
calculating ROI on Facebook investments, but it is even more complicated for phar-
maceutical fi rms.
1.2.7
The Patient Has Turned into an Empowered Consumer
Consumers have become more vocal in general. Call it a general trend in society.
Pharmaceutical fi rms cannot escape this trend. The consumer takes a more domi-
nant role in the economy. Online medical diagnosis and information has enhanced
a consumer's confi dence to become more involved in treatment decisions, in some
cases even to take control. The cartoon where a patient tells his doctor “Doctor, I
diagnosed myself online, I am just here for a second opinion” is a well-known
abstraction of the reality of today's medical practice. In areas such as oncology,
increased involvement of patients is welcomed. For instance, after explaining the
pros and cons of different treatment options, patients are often asked if they desire
to make the fi nal choice about which treatment to pursue. This can tilt to a complete
consumerism of healthcare, where consumers shop around to obtain the prescriptions
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