Status Update - Drug companies must prioritize education over marketing says Ruchi Mallya, pharmaceutical technology analyst at independent business analyst Ovum. Every industry is using social networks to connect with consumers; every industry, that is, except pharma and biotech. Social networks are meant to connect people on a more personal level. Participating in social media requires pharma to contribute to the conversation, engage customers, and talk to customers -- not at them. However, conversing with end users is strictly forbidden by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

All life sciences companies are allowed to do is tell customers to speak to their physicians for more information, and hear about adverse drug reactions patients have had. Until the FDA changes some rules, there is no opportunity for pharma to discuss a drug with consumers, hoping to sell it, but there is potential to increase patient awareness of disease and treatment options.

Trust Before Social Media

With over 45 million uninsured in the U.S. and many more patients worldwide that must wait hours, days, weeks or months to see a physician, access to healthcare is a major issue for patients. Before the internet, the physician was the primary source of information about diseases, treatment options and drug facts. As the popularity of the internet grew, so did the patients' independence from their doctors.
Now, more consumers are taking control of their own health by getting information from online patient advocacy sites, social networks and blogs of other patients, rather than seeking the advice of a physician. Therefore, the life sciences industry needs to increase its online presence to provide patients with relevant, accurate information about their products.
While consumers may learn about new medications from the internet, the reality is that they still need to go to their physician to get the prescription. However, even with all the internet marketing pharma companies have done, there is still no guarantee that consumers will ask for a specific brand. Instead what tends to happen is that after researching a new treatment, consumers ask their friends or scour the social networks for other people's experiences before they go to their doctors.
This happens regardless of what is found on the internet and what pharma reps may say on social media sites, because in the end, consumers trust their friends and peers over the industry. In order for pharma to truly reap the benefits of the internet and social media sites, companies need to spend some time improving their image to gain back the trust of the public.
Rather than using the internet as a promotional tool, the pharma industry will fare better in a social media environment if it builds a trusting relationship with consumers through disease and drug education. Non-promotional engagement with consumers will also allow companies to listen and respond to patients' needs better, which is what personalized medicine is about, and in the end, what the healthcare industry is about.

Patients Find Comfort in Other People's Stories

Like everyone else, patients are normal people. They just want to know more about a drug before they take it. What are the major side effects? Will this affect my quality of life? Does this drug really work? Physicians get this information from pharma reps and other medical experts, but patients often find the information they need from patient advocacy sites and specific disease or drug-focused forums.
In other words, patients find comfort from stories and experiences provided by other patients - their peers. If pharma companies want to be involved in the conversation with consumers, they need to sponsor patient advocacy or patient support websites and non-promotional disease education sites. For those companies that want to turn education into promotion, a suggestion would be to partner with other pharma companies that offer products for the same disease and have one educational site in which all the products are listed.
While this approach might be unheralded in the industry, it provides the patient with all the treatment options, which can then be discussed further with the doctor, and is likely to be perceived as a valuable service by all concerned. It is highly recommended, though that life sciences companies keen on educating patients not bring any promotional content into the picture, as this will result in the belief that the industry is still only interested in money, not public health, and will cause an even greater rift between pharma and the public.

Popular Social Media Sites Can Be Pharma's Best Friends

With each new drug comes a new marketing campaign, and with each new campaign comes more disdain for the life sciences industry. It seems that each new drug launched today is more expensive than the last, but with greater promises to improve quality of life -- rarely to treat the disease itself. Due to a high number of recent misleading television commercials - Pfizer's Lipitor and Bayer's Yaz to name a couple - consumers are quickly losing faith in not only the information that life sciences companies provide, but the industry as well. Since consumers would prefer to get some relief over none, drugs are, and will remain, a part of a patient's everyday routine. However, with increasing healthcare costs and reduced doctor availability, patients are keener to seek the advice of peers from patient websites and blogs or other popular social media sites.
Of all the social media platforms existing on the internet today, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are three of the most widely-used. Hence, there is great potential for pharma to leverage these applications for both marketing and educational purposes, particularly since they are easy to use and inexpensive to set up and maintain. Pharma companies are not allowed to have a two-way conversation with patients, but they are able to provide information to the public through these sites which can increase disease awareness, and in turn, brand awareness.
Drug marketers can set up Facebook and Twitter pages to provide medical information as well as updates about the company - although these should be separate pages. Companies can then gain feedback from consumers on how best to meet their needs through their comments (the public can speak with pharma, but pharma cannot talk back), which creates an environment of greater patient awareness by the company, increased brand awareness of the drug, and an improved image of the industry overall.

Changing the Pharma-Physician-Patient Relationship

When it comes to social media, the industry is stuck between a rock and a hard place. While companies are eager to enter that world, they are overly cautious due to lack of regulations and warning letters that were sent over the past two years. With patients becoming more involved in their health, and relying primarily on the internet and social media sites to empower them, life sciences companies have a social responsibility to engage and educate consumers about diseases and treatment option, and urge consumers to seek the advice of their physicians rather than making medical decisions based solely on internet research. Pending FDA guidelines, participation in social networks can not only open up two-way communication between pharma and patients, but allow for three-way conversations between pharma, physicians and patients, thereby improving the healthcare industry.