Tracy Staton | FiercePharma
Marketing
Chatting with
the public is not in pharma's comfort zone. Drugmakers are adept at the one-way
communication known as direct-to-consumer advertising, and some of them deal
well with the media. Some even know how to work with patient groups.
Back-and-forth with doctors? Pharma's daily bread.
But put your average, everyday drug company in the middle of a public
conversation, and it freezes up. Worried it will say the wrong thing, sensitive
to criticism, mindful of unintended consequences, drugmakers usually prefer to
stand by the punch bowl and check their iPhones for messages.
You could say pharma has social anxiety.
In fact, of the 50 largest drugmakers worldwide, only half even dabble in social media. Only 10 use all three of the oldest, biggest social sites--Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube--according to a new study by the IMS Institute for
Healthcare Informatics. And within that small group, few are actually
interacting with patients and the public.