The Patient and Big Pharma

The patient is so important to the pharma industry and with all the developments in technology in recent years, how to strengthen the relationship between patient and pharma has never been such a hot topic. There was an article in the FT last year which reported on the results of a poll measuring the levels of trust patient groups have for the big names in pharma. The article discussed the reasons why potentially some organisations were deemed to be more trustworthy than others. In the report detailed rankings compiled from patient groups with a close knowledge of the drug company’s products showed many continental European groups rated highly, while US and UK businesses were less well judged.

The main issue the patient groups seemed to have was over the levels of transparency and engagement pharma companies had endeavoured to establish with them. Some companies had really worked hard to build up strong relationships with patient groups over the last few years and this had paid off: Novartis for example put a lot of resource into cultivating tight relationships, most noticeably with its leukaemia drug Glivec, and their ratings subsequently went up three points from 2008.

So what can Big Pharma do to work on this engagement? Is social media is good tool?  I believe so, however from their perspective there are a lot of restrictions placed on them, with rulings from the various regulatory bodies bearing down on them and obviously there are worries that rules could be inadvertently breached with the speed and interactive nature of social media. Social media is also seen by some in the industry as sitting outside of the traditional marketing mix, as something ‘special’, which also plays out in the type of roles available in this sector. From talking to industry professionals specialising in digital there is a distinct lack of positions available to them within the healthcare industry with just a handful of agencies and pharma companies really embracing it at the moment. For some senior level marketers, social media is new territory and e-strategies are not yet mainstream. A full list of social media campaigns can be found on the Dose of Digital wiki which is a fantastic resource for those interested in this area.  

Social media is a really powerful tool for healthcare when used correctly. By connecting patients who share the same illness or issue there are reportedly better patient outcomes. By connecting physician communities knowledge is shared. Patient groups are very powerful and pharma is always looking for a way to connect with them. With reported deaths and financial implications for patient non-compliance, this is an area where pharma can really experiment. One example cited in an article on the eyeforpharma website discusses the Almirall  campaign for Vaniqa (a facial hair growth stunting cream). The UK is the biggest market for the product but market research showed that compliance with the therapy was poor. The main obstacle Almirall had to overcome was the level of commitment needed by the patient for the product to work. So they set up a website to explain how the product works, along-side beauty tips to help stimulate interest.  To skirt any potential regulatory complications over direct communication with the public that might tip into marketing, access to the Almirall compliance website is by password only. Doctors are also kept in the loop and are encouraged to go on to the site to learn about the product.

Of course social media is not the only answer and companies are tackling non compliance with healthcare psychology methods as well, looking at individual types of patients and how they interact with medication. It does however widen the scope for different methods of communication from one on one live chats, or group discussions or information output opportunities.

One thing for certain, whether social media is used or not, patients are getting more and more vocal about their treatment and the industry will never go back to the old one way  communication stream.

http://www.doseofdigital.com/healthcare-pharma-social-media-wiki/
http://social.eyeforpharma.com/patients
http://issuu.com/mark123/docs/www.patientcompliancemedia.com