My question to the DTC community is why can’t we come together with FDA and make DTC advertising more understandable. I am not talking just about risks but also benefits and indications. We are all letting the approved label dictate how we say what we say. That label information is generally not consumer friendly. Consumers […]
DTC in Perspective: Obamacare Stays, Drug Companies at Risk
With the failure to come up with an alternative to Obamacare, Congress has left drug companies in a more precarious position. The goal was to make health care more free market oriented and less government controlled. That would have created more competition among health care providers and insurance companies. Patients would have more choice and […]
Online Health Communities: A New Frontier in Health Research
For years, many luxury goods retailers, concerned about exclusivity and control, either sniffed at or completely ignored the internet as a marketplace. Now, a recent McKinsey & Company Marketing & Sales report tells us “Nearly half of luxury goods buying decisions are already influenced by what consumers hear or see online.” The same report predicts […]
DTC in Perspective: FDA Seeks Input on Risk Disclosure. More Study or Action?
The FDA is starting the process of possibly reducing the required number of risks presented in television ads. They have opened a docket to solicit public input on 8 questions they raised. I expect this process to be lengthy as speed has never been a guiding principle of the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion […]
Creating a Compelling Customer Experience for the Digital Age
The scope of what we call marketing seems to be growing every day. Within the professional lives of many in the business of pharmaceutical marketing, a campaign of one-size-fits-all magazine ads alone was considered sufficient to launch and sustain a multi-million-dollar brand. Then came television, then the internet, then mobile devices, and on and on […]
Advocacy and Industry: Weighing Influence and Transparency
Today’s healthcare environment – with access to therapy and pricing top of mind, new “right to try” laws, possible legislative changes, and big shifts in the ways that consumers get health information – requires more innovative and thoughtful approaches on how to communicate than ever before. For many pharmaceutical companies, advocacy is a highly promising and rewarding way […]
DTC in Perspective: Point of Care (POC) Marketing Challenges
I see doctors more than I used to due to my advancing age. That gives me a chance to see more point of care marketing as I go to my many specialists for a variety of ailments. I often wonder how much patients are receptive to being educated while in the waiting room or in […]
DTC in Perspective: FDA Study on Risk Communication Complete
In what may be a major step towards reducing the litany of risks presented in DTC television ads, the FDA released their new study that shows that less risks presented is better for consumer comprehension and retention. While saying further study is needed, FDA cleared the way for perhaps eventually changing its guidance on the […]
Check the Pulse of Your Heart Health Marketing
Sponsored Content Every 42 seconds, someone in the US has a heart attack. Each minute, someone dies from a heart disease-related event.1 Even though heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US, many adults are uninformed of the causes, symptoms and proper treatment of heart-related conditions. In fact, according to PatientPoint research, […]
Voice Search and the Health Information Impact
If you haven’t been living under a rock (or aren’t my parents), you are probably aware of the rise in popularity of voice search and voice enabled devices. Thanks to technology like Google Assistant, iOS Siri, and Amazon Echo, voice search is exploding in terms of both adoption and technology integration. A comScore study in […]