Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18876

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Silverman E
Is Anyone Looking At Drug Company Web Sites?
Pharmalot 2010 Nov 16
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/11/is-anyone-looking-at-drug-company-web-sites/

Full text:

Not too many people do. At least that’s the finding of a recent survey, which found 66 percent of the respondents go online for health info, but only 11 percent regularly turn to a web site run by a drugmaker for info about an illness or medical condition. By comparison, 92 percent look at medical web sites, social media sites and online communities, such as chat rooms and forums, or a news or government site.
Just the same, 69 percent of the 852 US adults who queried by Accenture’s Life Sciences sales and marketing practice expect drugmakers to provide info about a medical condition for which they are taking drugs. The suggestion is clear: pharma is failing to seize an opportunity while grappling with FDA regulations and the ins and outs of the Internet.
While pharmaceutical companies are methodical in manufacturing their products, there is a clear disconnect in how they communicate with their patients,” says Accenture’s Tom Schwenger in a statement. “The results clearly show that pharmaceutical companies must adopt a better understanding of their patient behavior through sophisticated analysis in order to fully capitalize on how patients interact with social media channels and web sites.”
The trick, of course, is doing so without running afoul of the FDA. Failing to provide required risk information is a common malady (see here). And who can forget how the agency slapped Novartis around for creating a pair of unbranded web sites (see this).