Over the past several days I have been entrenched in a lot of discussions about how pharmaceuticals can participate in the conversation. This is the most regulated industry of them all and - on the surface - there appears to be more risk in joining than not.
The biggest concern among pharmas is in how to handle adverse events. (Pharmaceuticals are required to report to the FDA if they hear about unusual circumstances.) There's been a lot of debate on this topic, all of which are summarized in this excellent whitepaper from ePharmeceuitcals (PDF).
To date, the FDA has been largely silent. They have not published any guidance on blogs. Still, this is not stopping pharmas from pushing the boundaries.
GlaxoSmithKline was the first to experiment. They launched a blog for their labs in France. Pfizer too has dabbled with Health Politics, a blog that is supported by their Medical Humanities Initiative. There have been lots of experiments in podcasting too. Both Pfizer and J&J have podcasts. (All of these above firms are Edelman clients).
Quigley Pharmaceuticals - which I am not affiliated with - is breaking new ground today with a new vlog hosted by former baseball great Rollie Fingers. The video blog - an effort to promote PainGoes, an over-the-counter pain reliever - focuses on sports, but stays on brand by talking about treatments for aches and pains. I like that the vlog doesn't just talk about the pain reliever. They found a higher holy calling (baseball) that will help them connect with consumers.
You'll note that the vlog lacks comments. Normally I would frown on this, but given the restrictions regarding adverse events, I understand why they have comments turned off for now. Hopefully they will find a way to turn them back on at some point or add trackbacks. This would be ideal. Otherwise, the vlog is not truly a conversation. It's a one-way message ... at least for now.
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