Monday, October 15, 2007

A Pharma-Sponsored Social Network?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. This is potentially groundbreaking news.

The time may have come for pharma to break into the social media world. News is that Pfizer is teaming up with Sermo to create a social networking site.

Those of you who know me know that I've got a good deal of health science background - pharma, biotech, medical device and healthcare experience - and that I talk quite a deal about how pharma is missing out by not embracing social media. I recognize the inherent pitfalls; in fact, I've written about the challenges in using social media in a highly regulated environment and suggested an approach for a niche medical device maker,

So the question with the Pfizer announcement is: how did they figure out a way around the lawyers and regulators and create a social network?

The answer lies in their audience. Recognizing that the direct-to-consumer model is laden with legal statements that require a two-page buy in print and a 60-second spot on television, pharma is now figuring out a way to improve on the model is seemingly invented: the sales call on the physician. They're moving back to their b-to-b roots.

Trying to secure a 2-minute appointment with an already time-crunched physician, only to bark out some data points and leave behind a handful of free pens and samples - that never appealed to me, either as a potential job or as the proper way to interact with a customer. This model doesn't allow for the salesperson to use one of the most valuable tools they have: their ears. And Sermo themselves listened to their community. According to Sermo's CEO, physicians on the site started asking for the industry to communicate with them in a medium more convenient than sending sales people to their offices.

With the Sermo partnership, Pfizer gets access to Sermo's 31,000 licensed physicians and can interact with them directly. While the users in the network remain anonymous, Pfizer doctors who ask and answer questions are identified as being from Pfizer. The upside? The Wisdom of Crowds comes into play and the community calls out a biased post or comes to the defense of a peer. And a large population of physicians gets the same message at the same time.

The one thing I'd be interested in tracking is how this plays out with the lawyers and regulators. Will the FDA demand (and be granted) access to the network? I don't think it's such an unreasonable request. They should probably be added as members who can observe, but not participate in these online discussions.

I applaud Pfizer and Sermo for creating a way to open the door to social media for the pharmaceutical industry. Let's see how this arrangement goes and see who's up next.

Labels: b2b, news, pharma, Risk, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:59 PM

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Comments:

At 10/23/2007 7:40 PM, Troy Wing said...: Interesting Post.
The average face time of a pharma rep is as you say around 2 minutes.
And most reps carry a laptop or tablet around with a SFA/CRM app with Sample Management and Call Detailing which they desperately try to get in front of the MD or practice member. Do you envisage some of that can be driven from social networking sites while conforming to the strict requirements of PDMA and 21 CFR Part 11? I imagine, development of such applications also slow down as ISV's are required to conform to a an article heavy quality process.
At 10/23/2007 9:28 PM, Scott said...: Troy,

Thanks for your comment. You bring up an important point about PDMA and 21 CFR Part 11. These days, sales reps almost have to have law degrees to simply keep up with the regulatory requirements.

Electronic submissions of records (from research to manufacturing to sales calls) has made the process less onerous in some cases, but not all. I would hope that the development of a white-label social network for pharma would build in some of these necessary data capture & reporting steps. From what I know of working with a large multinational high tech company, the back-end collection & reporting systems are available; it's a matter of tailoring these to the front-end / user-interface of whatever socnet is used.
At 10/23/2007 11:11 PM, Troy Wing said...: Thanks Scott,

I also noticed on LinkedIn someone asking a question on Social Networking impact on Pharmaceuticals. Not sure if you are into answering questions on here but you seem well qualified for this one..

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/sales/customer-relationship-management/MAR_SLS_CRM/118780-5106660

Kind Regards, Troy.
At 10/24/2007 12:10 AM, Scott said...: Pharma is already late to the game with respect to social networking / social media. There have been (and there will continue to be) severe legal and regulatory challenges with regard to opening up the marketing to a two-way conversation instead of what's been a one-way messaging push.

The pendulum has swung so far in one direction that now even the most widely accepted drugs are being second-guessed because of fear of lawsuits over statistically insignificant adverse events. The FDA is instituting even more rigorous requirements that will delay or block drugs from getting to the market in a timely manner. The day is not far off when we'll see a reversal of this, and it will be due in no small part to two intersecting trends: social media and consumer-driven healthcare.

As patients are given more access to their medical records and are more informed about their care - including cost of care and treatment alternatives, to name two - they'll have the ability to treat medicine like any other retail experience. They can shop around and make a decision based on as much information as they'd like to collect. And the healthcare providers and networks that make information readily available and transparent - from costs to outcomes data - will be the winners.

Social media itself has always been about transparency and authenticity. Fake blogs ("flogs") are discovered and exposed, to much ridicule and negative publicity. People who game the system are shown to be the charlatans that they are. And if there is any industry that needs to show the world that it is operating for the public good, it is the pharmaceutical industry. It already suffers from a huge negative outlook, both from physicians and the general public. When pharma participates in these open forums or social networks, it will demonstrate that it's made up of real people and is not simply a faceless bureaucracy.

The Sermo network is a relatively minor start, but a good one. It makes sense that pharma would start with a b-to-b play, as the physician network is one they already know and one that they need to sell to anyway, as I wrote above.

Where it's really going to get interesting is if and how pharma elects to bring this to DTC marketing. If you ask me, that's the area that's frought with difficulties. Right now the FDA tracks ads, which are fairly numerous to begin with; but if they have to start monitoring conversations? The volume will be overwhelming - unless the FDA sponsors a pharma / patient social network themselves, so it's a closed system. But that might be asking a little too much.

I'm very intrigued by these developments and I'll be staying tuned to see where it goes next - or who knows? I might even counsel the industry on where it goes next.