It's one of a pharma PR rep's worst nightmares: Somebody complains online that the medicine they are taking is causing unpleasant side effects.
Because of the fear of people complaining about their product on social media sites, pharma companies can be reluctant to join in the social media conversation. But how many people are really reporting adverse events from medication?
During a 30-day period, Visible Technologies tracked 224 pharmaceutical brands and analyzed more than 257,000 posts from various social media sites to analyze the frequency of adverse event reporting. The number of adverse events reported was surprisingly low.
The findings showed only 0.3 percent of all posts contained an adverse event and even fewer met the federal reporting requirements for an AER (adverse event reporting), according to the Visible Technologies press release.
"We think this study will minimize the fears of people in pharma who use social media," says Jackie Kmetz, director of community educational outreach. "This is a lower number than what we expected."
Here are some of the key findings:
• Only 14 percent of posts that contained an AE had an identifiable name and contact method to enable pharmaceutical marketers to fill out required paperwork.
• On average, during the 30-day period, each brand received a total of three posts that met the requirements for AER.
You can read more of the press release here—and maybe even get rid of some of those nightmares.