Patient Empowerment: Consequences for Pharmaceutical Marketing and for the Patient–Physician Relationship - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 433

Fig. 14.4 A dissatisfied patient (Shirley Ledlie; alias: Ann Adams) attacks Sanofi VOICES
Facebook page. Source : John Mack's Post on Pharma Marketing Blog: http://pharmamkting.
blogspot.com/2010/03/sanoi-aventis-feels-social-media-pain.html
One of the important barriers to firm activity in social media space is the need to
monitor all the content generated by patients, which may seem a daunting task. In
particular, there is a generalized fear of the consequences of adverse events and
negative publicity. Patients with a negative opinion about a firm's therapy can indeed
be the nightmare of any brand manager. Greene et al. ( 2010 ) reproduce a query
posted on a Facebook page by a patient taking long-acting insulin glargine therapy
that generated strong buzz around the adverse effects of this therapy (p. 289):
Severe weight gain? Tired? Mood changes? Body aches? Insulin resistance belly fat? I have
been seeing a correlation between this drug and all the above. Nothing formal as far as polls,
but just asking folks that I believe are diabetic and showing signs of insulin resistance…IS
THERE ANYBODY ELSE QUESTIONING THIS??????? Are you involved in the same
argument with your medical team as I am? Any feedback would be appreciated! PLEASE.
Sanofi-Aventis has also faced a similar experience with its oncology drug,
Taxotere (used in the treatment of breast, prostate, junction, advanced head and
neck, and non-small cell lung cancers), in the form of a well-documented experi-
ence by prominent pharmaceutical marketing blogger John Mack. 6 On March 8,
2010, simultaneous posts in multiple blogs, well known within the pharmaceutical
industry, documented a serious threat to Sanofi-Aventis' image coming from one of
the company's Facebook pages, Sanofi Voices. Shirley Ledlie, a British patient on
Sanofi-Aventis' chemotherapy drug, Taxotere, suffered from a rare side effect: per-
sistent chemotherapy-induced alopecia, i.e., permanent hair loss. She decided to
voice her anger on Sanofi's VOICES Facebook page. To avoid being blocked from
posting comments on Sanofi-Aventis' Facebook pages, Shirley used the nickname
“Ann Adams,” and posted a vividly threatening photo of her scalp (see Fig. 14.4 )
and the following message on Sanofi's VOICES wall:
6 See http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com/ , in particular, the post http://pharmamkting.blogspot.
com/2010/03/sanoi-aventis-feels-social-media-pain.html , last accessed on March 2nd, 2012.