Traditional Strategies
Patient "Unadvocate" Lays Siege to sanofi-aventis VOICES Facebook Page. Where’s S-A’s Social Media VOICE?
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Shirley Ledlie, aka “Ann Adams”, “Julie Kahn”, “Jasper Boon”, and who-knows-how-many-more-phony-FB-aliases — the patient who claims sanofi-aventis (S-A) mislead her about the side effects of cancer drug Taxotere (see ” sanofi aventis Feels the Social Media Pain. But Is It Authentic? “) — is laying siege to S-A’s VOICES Facebook page .
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Pharma Should Leave Unmoderated SM Discussions to 3rd Parties
Friday, March 5th, 2010
In comments addressed to the FDA, many drug companies and ad hoc industry groups are suggesting ways drug companies can legally “engage” with patients, physicians, and consumers in online social media discussions (see, for example, ” A Pharma ‘Social Media Working Group’ Submits Comments to FDA “).
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Pfizer’s Bait and Switch Facebook Pfan Strategy
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Yesterday afternoon at approximately 3 PM ET, @pfizer_news posted this tweet: “Become a Fan of Pfizers official page on Facebook: http://bit.ly/aGX49f” About an hour later I was sent this DM: ‘Hi – Wanted to let you know that we just launched our official Pfizer Facebook page ( http://bit.ly/aGX49f )…
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If Drugs Were Like Automobiles
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
According to an Institute for Safe Medication Practices report (see here ) more than 1000 reports of patient deaths were received by FDA for rosiglitazone (AVANDIA) in the first three quarters of 2009, “more than any other drug we monitor.” In contrast, at least 34 deaths have been linked to Toyota vehicle problems going back as far as 2004, forcing Toyota to recall more than 8 million vehicles worldwide. Not only that, but the top executives of Toyota had to appear before Congress and apologize.
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The "Lists" that Big Pharma Is and Isn’t On
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
I like lists just about as much as I like statistics.
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Geez, GSK! Find Another Source of "Balanced" Commentary
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
GSK continues to use its “More Than Medicine” blog to focus on Avandia, one of its medicines receiving a lot of attention recently (see Steve Nissen to GSK (and FDA): “Put Patients First! It’s Time to Pull Avandia from the Market.” ). In an early-evening post yesterday, blogger “Michael F”, complained of the “misleading headlines stating that ‘FDA Report Advises Avandia be Pulled from the Market,’” which he noted “were re-Tweeted dozens of times.” Then he pointed out that other commentary, which GSK found to be “more balanced” gained less attention. Michael F cited “this piece in Forbes,” as his example of a “more balanced” account (see here or screen shot below in case they delete or edit the post; click for enlarged view)
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A Snarky Look at Sneaky Marketing Tactics Pharma Hasn’t Avoided
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
My friend Jonathan Richman ( @jonmrich ) often sees the pharma marketing glass half full, whereas I often see it half empty. It’s just the way we are wired. The goal, however, is the same — improve pharma marketing.
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FDA Fan Club Launched on Facebook
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
“Should FDA have a Facebook page?,” asks Mark Senak on his EyeOnFDA blog . “It is only a matter of time before Facebook, or some message platform equivalent, is realized as necessary.” I decided that if FDA won’t come to FaceBook, then FaceBook should come to FDA ! To do that, I launched the official FDA Fan Club on FaceBook.
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Allergan’s "Eye-popping" Migraine Botox Study: Freedom of Expression or Off-Label Promo Tool?
Monday, February 15th, 2010
“A preliminary study suggests the same type of botulinum injection used for cosmetic purposes — Botox — may be associated with reduced frequency of migraine headaches that are described as crushing, vicelike or eye-popping (ocular), but not pain that is experienced as a buildup of pressure inside the head, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Dermatology , one of the JAMA/Archives journals” ( see press release here ). This caught my attention because (1) this study was supported in part by a grant from Allergan Inc., the company that markets Botox, (2) co-author Dr. Burstein serves as a consultant to Allergan Inc
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PhRMA (Intern) Finds Replacement for Billy Tauzin!
Friday, February 12th, 2010
“Billy Tauzin,” reports the New York Times , “one of the highest paid lobbyists in Washington, is resigning as president of the pharmaceutical industry’s trade group amid internal disputes over its pact with the White House to trade political support for favorable terms in the proposed health care overhaul.” “Christopher A. Viehbacher, a board member of PhRMA and chief executive of Sanofi-Aventis, said in an interview on Wednesday that he still held hope the health care package could pass Congress. ‘The most important thing to me in this whole process is that PhRMA was not the bad guy,’ he said, adding, ‘It has not been without its political cost because it is actually difficult to be bipartisan in all of this.’” PhRMA Intern, however, was quoted as saying “The bipartisan train has left the station! It’s time that PhRMA has leadership that can stand up to the liberal bullies!” Here’s the latest episode of PhRMA Intern, where she successfully has recruited Tauzin’s replacement:
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