January 5, 2012 » FDA & Social Media “Guidelines”

Lab Notes from the Innovation Lab
FDA & Social Media “Guidelines”
The FDA recently issued draft guidelines that impact how pharma can communicate in social media, but leaves many in the industry underwhelmed.
The FDA publicly recognizes the value of the Internet and social media—and pharma—in public health. This, while small, is a step in the right direction.
The

December 2, 2011 » Homecoming Queens and Party Boys

Imagine yourself as a high school student in a new town where you don’t know anyone. After the first week of school, you manage to overhear that there’s a big party on Saturday night—and “everyone” will be there. You decide that this party is your big chance to meet everyone and introduce yourself.
Welcome to Social

October 6, 2011 » 24 Hours that Made a Difference

Too often in our jobs we become so focused on our day-to-day tasks that we lose sight of the bigger picture—why it is that we do what we do. This past week, I received a stirring reminder of the impact our line of work has on the lives of others.
A posting on the website of

September 21, 2011 » An Invitation to Compass’ 5th Annual Innovation Lab: Translating the Patient Experience into Commercial Success

The rare disease space presents unique challenges and opportunities for companies bringing orphan drugs to market. Patients and caregivers are the key stakeholders. As a result, social media landscape analysis and advocacy insight research is critically important to understanding the patient experience—and to optimize each connection point between the patient and the brand. Challenges such

August 26, 2011 » Facebook and Pharma: Some Continue to Love the One You’re With

Facebook recently implemented changes for pharma pages, forcing companies that have an unbranded disease or corporate page to allow users to comment on posts. Facebook did this to encourage an “authentic, engaging, two-way dialogue” for people and the companies they interact with on the social-networking site.

This new policy came into effect last week (Aug. 15),

February 28, 2011 » Using Social Media to Fast Track Market Research

Market research is key in preparing for product launches, relaunches or programs.  In an environment where all patients and caregivers can grab the ear of pharma marketers through social media, we should not overlook the value of social media monitoring as a research tool.
For brands and markets with an active social community (Read: nearly all),

August 12, 2010 » Novartis’s Most Recent Letter: Social Media—Facebook—is the Channel Not the Issue

So at this point most folks have heard about the Novartis letter regarding the Tasigna.com Facebook Share feature; in the event that you didn’t, here is what happened:

On July 29, 2010 the FDA issued a warning letter to Novartis for the Facebook share button and sharebar on the Tasigna product website – both consumer and HCP sides. The issue was that when a user clicked the share button, it displayed a post on the user’s Facebook wall. The post was a statement (that varied by page) that typically included the brand name and the indication. It was a brief statement with a link to the website, so of course it did not include fair balance. Further, language within the statement used on some of the pages used superiority language that FDA had previously told them not to use.