Is the culture within pharma ready for the change that is needed to embrace new media?

About the Author

Richard Meyer is a passionate Internet DTC marketer with over 15 years of progressive experience in consumer marketing who`s worked on top pharmaceutical brands like Cialis, Prozac and Sarafem, as well as two years with Medtronic Diabetes. He is currently consulting for his own company, Online Strategic Solutions, and writes a DTC column for PM 360 magazine and blogs for Eye for Pharma in addition to his own blog, World of DTC Marketing.

While the FDA determines the course of social media within pharma marketing a lot of companies are not even close to being prepared to embrace social media marketing. How can a pharma company have a conversation with a consumer when the conversation first has to be approved by legal & regulatory people? Does anyone really believe that a drug company is willing to hire or assign a lawyer and regulatory person to approve Tweets or Facebook updates as needed when the industry is laying off people left and right?

Consumers don’t trust the FDA and they don’t trust drug companies. Any conversation that is attempted via social media with consumers is going to be suspect. In order to rebuild trust with pharma a conversation has to be genuine and on the consumers/patients terms.

How can you have a conversation like this when you are required to have a buffer to filter the conversation consisting of a lawyer, regulatory and medical person?

I just finished the final phase of some research for a medical device company that is awaiting FDA approval for a new product. As part of the research we sent people to some drug company social media pages including the Gardasil Facebook page and some You Tube pages for Rx drugs. We found that people did like seeing real people talk about their health and treatment options but we also heard that there was a huge credibility gap. One person said “it’s not like they’re going to put anything up there that they don’t want you to hear”. Another said “there’s always two sides to every story and I want all sides before I decide”. As much as some people liked the social media pages when asked if this was enough to sway their decision the majority said “no”.

My client who is relatively new to healthcare marketing asked my why DTC marketing seems to have fallen off a creative cliff. The answer to that is not really that complex I believe. Most drug companies don’t want the smartest and most progressive people working for them. It’s more important to hire someone that “fits in” rather than someone who asks “why are we doing this and what can we do to make it better?”

This leads to “good is the enemy of great”. Hiring people who “fit in” rather than hiring people who can make that leap and challenge the status quo is a sure way to guarantee that companies will never make the leap the greatness. Respect for people has led to agreement when it probably should have led to disagreement. Today in pharma is someone speaks up enough they are labeled a trouble maker or disruptive and are given time to conform or else risk being shown the door.

There is no prosthetic for an amputated spirit. Eventually you settle in to a life of Power Points and back to back meetings and work becomes work rather than a passion to do what is best for patients and consumers. In order for the drug industry to get up from being knocked down they need to find those people who are willing to stand up for what they believe and acknowledge that marketing is broken and needs to be fixed before it’s too late. There are people out there it’s just up to the one person who acknowledges that change has to happen and has to happen now before it’s too late.