Social Media Wiki

Bringing Digital to Pfizer’s Drug Giveaway

First, I would like to applaud the folks at Pfizer for their new MAINTAIN (Medicines Assistance for Those Who Are In Need) program. Yes, it’s a little bit of stretch to get to the acronym, but pharma’s got to have them. For those not familiar with the program, basically, it provides one year of free drugs if you’re unemployed at no cost. A couple of important caveats: you have to have been on the Pfizer drug for three months prior to losing your job and  have no other healthcare coverage for drugs. Essentially, this is the Hyundai Assurance program for pharmaceutical products. 

As we all know, big pharma could always use a bit of good PR and this is some of the best it’s had in a while. Some cynics might mention the limitations of the program or that it’s tied to losing your job instead but does not include those with jobs who still can’t pay for their medications. You could also note that higher cost (and higher profit) oncology products aren’t included in the program according to Ad Age’s review of the program. However, the cynics seem to not be making a big splash this time around as most of the buzz is positive. 

Overall, this has got to be a positive PR coup for Pfizer. At the same time, I’m going to guess that they’ll actually not have that many people who fit the requirements for the program. You need to be on branded Pfizer products for three months and then lose your job. Yes, many people have lost their jobs recently, but the employment rate is still (historically-speaking) relatively low and job losses seem to have slowed. The other piece that limits the number of people who might qualify is that patients have to have been on treatment for three months. Assuming people tell the truth, with adherence rates dropping dramatically in the first three months, most patients never make it to month three. My point? This program might not cost Pfizer that much at all. Compare that to the PR value that they are getting (and could never have bought) and overall it seems like  pretty smart move. 

Let’s also remember, Pfizer has a lot to gain from this program. People who lose their job may cut back on medical treatments along with everything else. Those on Lipitor may ask their doctor for something that’s almost as good but much cheaper and they end up on generic Zocor. Pfizer gets nothing. However, when the patient gets his job back, he’ll probably continue with what was working. Pfizer would rather make sure that their drug is the one the patient is taking when they get insurance coverage once again. So, instead of losing them forever, Pfizer basically loaned them some money until they can get back on their feet and start paying once again.

As an aside, Ad Age included this in their article: “A former high-ranking pharmaceutical company executive said the cost to Pfizer for this new push may not be as high as people think. ‘Most of the money [drug companies spend] is in [research and development],’ said the former executive, who asked not to be identified. ‘It doesn’t cost a lot to manufacture the pills or package them.’”

Perhaps this comment explains why he/she is a “former” executive. If this were the pharma business model, then they could be selling every pill for 3 cents. Technically, I guess they’d have to sell the first pill for $800 million and then the next one could be 3 cents. The point of the higher prices is to re-coup the investment in development throughout the life of the product. Giving them away doesn’t have a high costs of goods sold, but it has a tremendous opportunity cost (or sacrificed revenue “cost”). So, seriously with this quote? But, I digress…

The point of this post isn’t supposed to be a Pfizer-lovefest, so I’ll get to it. My challenge to Pfizer is how they could have (can?) bring digital (and relationship marketing) into this program to make it even more valuable and actually turn a profit on it later on. It’s pretty clear that this program isn’t going to be advertised (which also keeps the number enrolling down) and I’m not suggesting that Pfizer advertise it. There also are some rules around offering enticements for getting someone to use your products and free samples (which is what this basically is) can fit in that category in some cases. So, I know that they have to be careful with how they tie this program to current and future sales and marketing.

That said, there’s an opportunity here. On the application form, Pfizer asks for the patient’s email address. I would guess that people would readily turn over this piece of personal information because they feel that they are getting some value in return (my take on this value exchange). But the question is: what can/should Pfizer do with these email addresses? Again, keep in mind that they’ve offered something very valuable in return for information and have people who are likely to be willing to accept some offers in exchange for these free drugs. So, is Pfizer asking each of the people in the program to opt into one of their product-specific CRM programs? For example, an applicant who is taking Lipitor should be offered the chance to enroll in My HeartWise, the product’s CRM program. If Pfizer believes in the value of these programs, then why not try to get more people enrolled?

Since those who get accepted for program are likely to have a very positive attitude towards Pfizer (and rightfully so), why not leverage this while you can? Perhaps they’ll agree to share their story for use on your website. Maybe they’ll write a blog post about you (or send a tweet). Maybe they’ll tell their friends about how great of a company you are. You can help them do all of this by providing them with simple talking points about the program and the company. Let them be your ambassadors while they’re willing and have a great opinion about your company. 

Maybe now’s the time to start collecting product reviews for inclusion on your site later on (when you can sell it to your regulatory team). Surely, these people would be more likely to give you a positive review (or any review at all). All of this is very common in other industries where they do a much better job at finding, energizing, and supporting their biggest brand advocates. They look for the right people through a variety of channels (social media being the big one now). They get them excited about what they can do and the difference they can make. Finally, they give patients simple ways to spread the word to others. It’s not a quid pro quo, as you’re not making their participation in the program contingent on their agreeing to help. Pfizer can follow this same model: find, energize, and support. 

How? The find part is really easy. They’ve got the names, street addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of those that should be the biggest advocates for the company (i.e., those that were accepted into the program). Energizing is hard regardless of the industry, but it can be done here for sure. Let those in the program know the value of what they are getting, how the drugs are going to help them (i.e., they made the right choice to find a way to stay on treatment), and how many other people could benefit, but aren’t. Yes, a little bit of a guilt-trip, but I think fair. Support is the final part of the model and that could be as complex as mailing a PR kit to every member of the program who is interested or as simple as adding a ShareThis button to every product site. Either way, you have to make it very easy for people to share your story otherwise they won’t.

So, hats off to Pfizer for taking on this ambitious program, it’s a 7.5 out of 10. My challenge to you is for you to figure out how you can make this even better and bring it to a 10 out of 10.

Dose of Digital Blog Issued FDA Warning Letter

I wasn’t sure this was even possible, but my attorney assured me it was. Early this morning, I received an email and follow up fax from the FDA that contained a warning letter (download the actual letter here). Yes, that kind of warning letter. I thought that they could only issue them to pharma and medical device manufacturers and distributors, but apparently not. They referenced Section OU812 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Apparently, they aren’t too happy with some of my recent posts including:

The critical part of the letter was as follows:

“As you are not a manufacturer, distributor, or seller of pharmaceutical products, we have limited jurisdiction over what you post. However, in cases like these, the Act allows us to assume executive powers as indicated under Section OU812 of the Act. These powers can only be assumed when FDA has determined that any marketing (as quoted from the Section in the Act) “makes it appear as though FDA is not a subject matter expert” or “infers that FDA is not in touch with the realities of the marketplace.” Your blog posts violate both of these clauses.”

There’s quite a bit more detail in the letter including some potential penalties, so check out the actual warning letter for more details.

They’ve given me 15 days to stop writing and/or remove all the FDA related content from the blog. I’m not sure what I’ll do now, but I’m not really up for a massive fine at this point. While I’m deciding, I thought we could start something of a petition. So, if you believe that this is inappropriate harrassment by the FDA, then please leave a comment with your thoughts. Maybe that will sway them a bit, but I doubt it. Alternatively, you can write directly to the Director at the FDA who sent this letter, Trevor Manfranginsindin, Esq., Director, Office of Compliance.

So, if you haven’t read my posts about the FDA, now’s the time, they might not be there for long. Thank you for your support in this difficult time and have a wonderful April.

Pharma Firewalls Foretell the Future

Regular followers of this blog will know that I love a catchy title, so when the chance to throw in some alliteration presented itself, I couldn’t resist. Today’s post is going to be short and to the point. I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in talking with current and potential pharma clients that tells me that it isn’t going to get any easier to do digital marketing solutions in the near future. 

First a story…my company, Bridge Worldwide, is one of a handful of WPP agencies that is “certified” to deliver WPP’s course for marketers called Digital Acceleration. It’s a roughly full-day course that includes practical, hands-on lessons on everything from user generated content to social media to gaming to search to mobile marketing. The idea is that your average marketer walks out of the program with at least a passing understanding of many digital marketing channels (contact me if you’re interested in having this for your company). One of the most important parts of the programs is the hands-on learning. Of course, you get a lot more out of any lesson if you’re forced to participate. So, that’s what we do. For those who don’t have one, participants will create a Facebook and MySpace profile, start a blog, upload photos to Flickr, set up an AdWords program and many, many more activities. This is all pre-work, as we build on these basics in the program (e.g., adding applications to your Facebook page). Many of you likely take these basics for granted, but they are far from basic in many companies and here’s where I noticed the problem.

We were invited to deliver this Digital Acceleration program at a large (top 5) pharma company. They were (are?) enthusiastic about rolling it out to the marketing teams. We shared the scope of the program and the pre-work and got great buy in. However, when it came time to practically doing the program, we hit a snag. Turns out that no one in this company could access most of the sites required for the pre-work. No Facebook, no MySpace, no YouTube just to name a few. There’s an internal firewall blocking access to all these sites. Presumably, this is to keep people from slacking off at work (not that I agree that using these sites is slacking). 

Here’s the real effect…you’ve created a generation of marketers in your company that don’t know the benefits of these types of platforms because they aren’t exposed to them. I know many of the people at this particular company and they work very hard. They are in early and stay late. They don’t have time to go home and investigate the different digital marketing channels on their home computers. If they are going to learn marketing and what’s out there, they are going to do it at work.

But they can’t.

The result…an impossible situation. The brand team members can’t see the benefits of these new channels because they don’t fully understand how they work. There’s a bunch of frustrated agency partners who don’t know where to begin when they are told to bring new ideas. And there’s also an executive suite that wants to do what other industries are doing digitally and can’t understand why their company isn’t doing it. 

In order to create digital programming, you have to live it. If you want your company to understand Facebook and similar social media platforms, for example, you probably need to allow them to access it. Case in point, our company Facebook page has 187 members…not a lot by many standards, but 85% of our employees are members of the group. When you ask us about Facebook, we can tell you everything about it. The good, the bad, the ugly and those little things that only come from using it everyday. That’s the information that is  really valuable. It’s the information that only comes from experience and doing it.

So, this one goes out to all the senior healthcare/pharma senior leaders out there. You say you want your company to be digitally savvy, well then you’d better let them. Take down the firewalls. You trust your people not to do a lot of other stupid things that could jeopardize the company much more than what providing access to YouTube might create. If this is your worry, then you need to go. You can’t have both. You can’t expect your people to be smart when it comes to digital and then not let them use digital. The simplest analogy I can give is this. Imagine Delta decided that their pilots only needed to read about flying (and it was optional) as their training to fly a 747. How do you think they’d fair? I’m betting they wouldn’t be able to get off the ground, but hours in the flight simulator would change all that. Are you letting your teams into the simulator or are you asking them to fly before they’ve even seen a plane?

Going back to the title of this post…if things don’t change, the firewalls of today foretell a bleak picture for pharma digital marketing in the future.

FDA Uses Social Media, But You Can’t

I’ve always wanted to say this, so here it goes: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Well, technically it’s not me saying it, but the FDA.

I’ve written quite a bit about the usage of social media in healthcare (here, here, and here) and there are a bunch of blogs out there dedicated specifically to this topic (check out my blogroll for a few). I’ve talked with hundreds of healthcare marketers over the years with one familiar refrain: “We can’t do social media. The FDA hasn’t told us what we can do or given us any guidance.”  I wrote about this very fact in a post I half-jokingly titled, “FDA Isn’t Ready For Us…Stop All E-Marketing!”  Half-joking. If you’ve seen a “2253″ form, you know I’m not totally joking. Haven’t seen one? Get your souvenir copy here. As I said in my post, of the 40 different categories of promotion recognized by the FDA, only one is Internet-based, the rather generic “WWW” category. That tells me that the FDA isn’t quite in the 21st century. 

But I was wrong.

While I was searching around Twitter last week, I came across @FDARecalls. Turns out, for all their lack of regulations for social media, the FDA sure likes it. I couldn’t help but Tweet this: “FDA (@fdarecalls) uses Twitter, but doesn’t have any guidelines for using social media. I’ll take ‘Irony’ for $200, Alex.”

Much to my surprise, I got a response to my tweet from @AndrewPWilson, a “Member of the HHS Social Media Team” according to his profile. The WHAT?!? HHS (Health and Human Services, by the way), HHS Social Media team. They have a team dedicated to social media? They’re doing better than most healthcare companies. Of course, the FDA can’t really send itself a warning letter so they’re a little more relaxed.

Andrew responded with this:

@jonmrich Can you clarify what you mean by guidelines? Really like to know what you’d like to see. FYI – http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia

We had a good exchange from there and I sensed that he genuinely wants to figure out a way to help healthcare marketers use social media in a compliant way. I’m staying positive for now.

I followed the link that Andrew included in his reply and found myself in government-sponsored social media nirvana. Follow along to “Social Media Tools for Consumers and Partners.” I couldn’t believe this page when I got to it. If I found it via Digg, I’d think it was fake. Here you’ll find everything related to social media that the HHS, FDA, and CDC does. Turns out that there are a lot of taxpayer dollars going towards interactive technology.What you’ll find on this page is a bunch of digital tactics that even the most digitally savvy healthcare companies have yet to try. The list:

  • Blogs
  • Email Subscriptions
  • Health-e-Cards (Get it, health-e-cards…healthy cards…hilarious. The government even has a sense of humor when social media is involved.)
  • Mobile (yes, they have a mobile site)
  • Online video including a CDC YouTube Channel AND an FDA YouTube Channel
  • Podcasts
  • RSS Feeds
  • Social Networks included a CDC MySpace page (yes, you can be friends with the Centers for Disease Control)
  • Badges (yes, blog badges). You’ve got to see these.
  • Twitter accounts including @FDARecalls, CDCEmergency, and CDC_ehealth
  • Widgets. There are 10 total. Yes, 10. I recommend the Salmonella Outbreak Map
  • “Virtual Worlds” Translation: Second Life. Yes, the CDC has an island in Second Life. Don’t believe me? You can’t make this stuff up.

I wrote this exclamation a while back in another post: “The question is: does FDA even know this is an issue? Who is the expert there on digital marketing who can help set the next generation of rules and regulations so that healthcare marketing can catch up to the rest of the world?” I also wondered aloud:  “If there is one person at FDA who knows how to use “The Computer” who reviews all of this stuff. If it’s got a “WWW” on the 2253, it just goes over to Ted in IT for a quick look.”

Ironically, it turns out the FDA knows more about digital than you. Yes, you. The average healthcare marketer. Do you know how and why you might use all these social media channels the FDA is using? In my experience, the answer is no. You said it yourselves actually. In a recent study done by MarketBridge, pharma marketers were asked to rate their understanding of digital marketing and nearly 45% said they “need to know more.” 

So it turns out that the FDA is actually ready for you and your social media programs. They might even know more than you do. However, we’re still left without clear guidelines that would save everyone a lot of headaches. Until then, I’ll continue my quest to help get these crafted. If you’re interested in helping, please contact me.

Until then, I’ll just add this awesome badge on this blog. 

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