News roundup

Pharma bucks trend and increases investment in Community Managers

This review of a Forrester report on B2B marketing shows how the Pharma industry is increasing community management while other industries are reducing it.

Pharma, medical device and biotech firms are making significant investment increases in customer community management and product marketing while decreasing those in field enablement, as they use social media to engage end users with their drugs and devices.

Pharma marketing and social media

A post from UK’s Eye for Pharma discusses how Pharma is, and can be, participating in social media. The main topics are:

Healthcare social vs. global spend and rankings

This email is primarily about the Latin America market, but there is an interesting chart that ranks healthcare marketers by:

• Facebook pages
• Facebook likes
• Global promotional spend

60% of North American consumers research via mobile devices

While not strictly pharma-related, this study shows that most US consumers are using their mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) with their regular PCs and laptops to research products and services. Many other studies show that some of those products and services are healthcare-related.

In related news:

• Tablets are predicted to hit 153 million units in 2013
• The Kindle Fire from Amazon has quickly grown to dominate the Android tablet market (comScore)

Literature survey on games used for health

Gamification has become an area of study only recently and this paper looks at how recently and quickly this topic has received academic scrutiny. The citations on this paper provide a rich resource for further research.

ICANN system offline since April 12 – new domain name applications stalled

As previously reported in Digital Rx – The Klick Health Blog, ICANN has been moving forward with plans to allow brands to buy their names as “top level domains” such as dot-Coke. The system tasked with allowing applications has been down since April 12 and has no estimated uptime. This means that ICANN won’t be able to announce the current registrants on April 30 as planned.

Merck wants to start something small

Merck has teamed up with a national infertility association, RESOLVE, on an unbranded campaign.

The campaign, which corresponds with National Infertility Awareness Week, is themed “It’s Just a Conversation.” It includes an interactive website, www.FertilityGuide.com, which provides information in the form of a fertility knowledge quiz, a doctor discussion guide and a fertility specialist locator.

Syfy channel launches ambitious TV / Game integration – talking to advertisers

This story isn’t strictly about digital pharma, but was just too exciting to pass up. Syfy network is integrating an episodic TV show with an interactive, first-person shooter (FPS) game. As the show progresses through its plot arc, elements will be enabled in the game. Advertisers are being sought for product placement in both the show and game.

“The game could have a highway with rest-stop signs, and one of the signs could have a Burger King symbol,” said Nicholas Beliaeff, senior VP-development for Trion Worlds. “When they get off the highway, they find a Burger King that survived the universal war.”

It remains to be seen if any brands want to be associated with “post-apocalyptic life”. Because of it’s FPS gameplay, only pharma brands that target younger males may want to join in on the fun.

For a more “pharma-friendly” version of the two screen solution, see Online Media Daily’s coverage of Discovery Network’s online and video offerings.Game preview at Trion Worlds.Ad Age

Moms are using mobile for shopping

Moms are making decisions based on information found via their mobile devices. It is reasonable to expect that if shopping activities are conducted on these devices then health searches are as well. Also the study found:

• Mothers spend twice as much time online monthly as the general population (66 hours vs. 33 hours), and spend 63% more time streaming online video.
• Three-quarters of mothers say they skip all of the ads they can while watching TV, 20% higher than the general population.
• Mothers are 45% more likely than the general population to use social media. According to April 2012 survey results from Performics, mothers make keen brand ambassadors on social networks, too.

Also, looking at the behaviors of almost 3,000 women who accessed at least one social network on a regular basis:

• Mothers were 34% more likely than other women to recommend companies and brands via social networking sites (59% vs. 44%)
• 25% more likely to talk about companies and brands they follow on Facebook (61% vs. 49%)
• 50% more likely to discuss them on social networking sites after seeing an ad elsewhere (49% vs. 33%)

A dying patient uses YouTube to plea for Genentech experimental drug

A case of a patient using YouTube to attempt to get access to an experimental oncology drug. In this case it worked and the patient got access.

“Every case is a huge maelstrom of hope, begging, corporate self-interest, slow bureaucratic due process, media spotlighting and public frustration,” he continues. “It is simply very hard to solve access issues with a single policy given the many interests besides the patients that are in play in these cases. Each winds up being unique.”

Physicians want more digital, but can’t find the time

This article and study, by ON24 and MedData Group, are chock-full of stats, only a few of which are highlighted here. This is definitely worth the time to read:

• 80% of the respondents said that ability to view on-demand content at their convenience was one of the benefits of attending conferences and meetings virtually
• 63% of respondents said that early evening is the most convenient time of the day to attend a live virtual event or webcast
• 45% of respondents currently own an iPad, 52.4% are iPhone users, 10.1% use a non-iPad tablet, and 25% use a non-iPhone smartphone. When asked which devices they planned to purchase in the next six months, 29.2% of respondents cited an iPad, 17% an iPhone, 4% a non-iPad tablet, and 5.9% a non-iPhone smartphone

FDA Roundup

• An FDA Warning Letter to The Medicines Company for Omission of Risk Information and Unsubstantiated Superiority Claims on a printed piece.
• An FDA Warning Letter to Octapharma for Octagam for Omission of Risk Information and Failure to Submit Post-Marketing Reports at the Time of Dissemination.
• The FDA says it’s doing a great job in a press release.The FDA defends its monitoring of drugs after marketing clearance. Reuters.
• FDA Fact Sheet on nanotechnology.