Wednesday, June 29, 2011

iPad detailing to physicians

There seems to be a rapid rise of the use of iPad in biotech/pharma. I recently saw an iPad in use by a sales rep. It was mostly a digitized version of their printed marketing materials with some minor functionality of being able to email the physician abstracts. The marketing manager was sharing how the reps are spending more time on detailing because of the "coolness" factor of the iPad. Even I had a blast playing around with the iPad as my mind wandered about all the additional possibilites. I'm curious to learn how the use of the iPad and mobile devices will change the way we sell to physicians.

We can incorporate in our physician segments and pre-build our marketing messages based those segments. We can utilize the data of how much time a rep spend on a certain page or message. We can offer a high touch way to show videos and animations of product attributes and drug administration at the tip of our fingers. We can collect immediate customer insight through quick surveys of our key customers.

There are many more possibilities.  As you research agencies that can help you execute these ideas, make sure they have not only the capabilities to develop the tools, but also the knowledge of the regulations in your markets.

Monday, June 27, 2011

New Facebook Policy for Pharma/Biotech

Pharma and biotech companies have had the option to enable or disable comments on their Facebook pages. However, Facebook recently changed its policy: 1) New Pharma/Biotech Facebook pages will have to keep comments open, 2) Existing Facebook pages with comments disabled have until August 15th to open their wall to comments.
Of course any company that puts themselves on Facebook or other social media forum is at risk of uncontrolled comments and public critism. However, one major concern unique to the biotech/pharma industry is the regulatory environment it plays in. In the US, the FDA requires reporting of all adverse events/effects. As it stands, even an unrelated, negative comment about a drug may be considered an adverse event/effect and may need to be reported.
I'm curious to see how biotech/pharma will respond to this new policy. Social media is here to stay and patients are looking for the opportunity to have an open dialogue. I hope to see biotech/pharma companies find a safe, appropriate way to be in this space and not run from it.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Blog Kickoff

Some topics I will explore through this blog will be:

social media, mobile tech, web 2.0, tweeting, inbound vs. outbound marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, use of facebook, changes in PR, and video and use of youtube.