June 2009 44 6 Issue of MMM

Editor's Desk

Credit where credit's due

You know that CME is in a bit of trouble when its longest-serving provider is hanging up its accreditation credentials and stepping out of the ...

Features

Global Report: Planet Pharma

Pharmaceutical marketers and their clients are facing formidable challenges in devising their global marketing strategies in 2009. A sluggish worldwide economy, patent expirations and generic ...

Working with Washington

The policies stemming from DC will be important in determining what pharma products and medical devices are accepted and successful and which do not meet ...

The Art of Analysis

Clashes often occur between the creative and analytic departments when the time comes to run tests that confirm which ideas best achieve a promotional objective. ...

Warning: Social Media's Dark Side

Joe Dysart reports on the best internet tools for preventing a reputation meltdown

Cash for Ideas

Is the hourly-rate model used by the majority of pharmaceutical marketers and advertisers antiquated? Mike Myers provides some alternatives to the current system including the ...

Headliner: WebMD's Wayne Gattinella

Heading up the biggest brand in online health has its benefits. "When I tell people I work at WebMD, they smile and tell me how ...

Antidote

There's no reason to stockpile Tamiflu

A few weeks ago I brought some samples of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir) to a TV studio to use as a prop on a ...

In Focus

Pharmas search for sense in FDA's 14 letters

Drug and device companies are still digesting DDMAC's 14 untitled letters issued in March declaring sponsored links on search engines for 45 drugs to be ...

Professional Marketing

Health Strategies realigns its service

Health Strategies Group, a provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, has realigned its pharmaceutical sales force effectiveness service under a more ...

Professional Marketing Briefs

Featuring news about Impact Rx, Wikipedia, Manhattan Research and SDI

Cegedim Dendrite expands Alliance Program three ways

Cegedim Dendrite has announced the expansion of its Alliance Program at the eyeforpharma Sales Force Effectiveness Europe 2009 Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Med Ed Report

Med Ed Report Briefs

Featuring news about the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, the AMA and Covisint

IOM calls for new regime in funding

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has called for the development of "a new system of funding accredited CME...free of industry influence" and ordered "a consensus ...

NAMI posts list  of industry cash

The National Alliance on Mental Illness posted a web registry of individual grants and contributions from corporate contributors and foundations.

Professional Media

Quadrant HealthCom, The Doctor's Channel to offer video 'CliffsNotes'

Quadrant HealthCom Inc. (QHI) announced a partnership with The Doctor's Channel to provide select video reviews of articles on two QHI titles: Cutis and The ...

Elsevier regrets faux journals

Elsevier came under fire for a series of deceptive publications published in Australia between 2000 and 2005.

Professional Media Briefs

Featuring news about Brandofino Communications, Slack Incorporated, CMPMedica and the New England Journal of Medicine

Media Forum

Will the FDA's letters affect SEM?

How will the recent FDA warning letters for pharma-sponsored search engine advertising affect your search engine marketing (SEM)/search engine optimization (SEO) strategy going forward?

Digital Media

USA Today offers doctor database

USA Today launched a web feature providing consumers with a database of the nation's most influential doctors.

HealthCentral teams with cancer organization

BreastCancer.org has opened the door for banner advertising and tapped online health network HealthCentral for the development of sponsorship programs, according to an announcement.

Digital Media Briefs

Featuring news about Answers Media, HealthiNation, US News Media Group and UnitedHealth Group

Yahoo! display campaigns tout 3:1 ROI

Consumers who saw display campaigns on Yahoo! for three pharma brands demonstrated a considerable uptick in prescription fills and web traffic to brand sites, according ...

Consumer Marketing

Consumers prefer generics worldwide, says study

Consumers worldwide overwhelmingly prefer medicines that have been around a long time to the latest treatments, and over half prefer generics to branded drugs given ...

Marketers weigh DTC policy pitfalls

Consumer drug marketers huddled in Washington for the start of the DTC National Conference in mid-April, unsure of the future but certain they faced a ...

J. Lo joins Sanofi for pertussis awareness ads

Sanofi Pasteur and the March of Dimes have recruited Jennifer Lopez to serve as the face of a whooping cough awareness campaign.

DDR on DTC: Novartis/Deutsch-NYC's Exelon Patch

Kudos to Novartis and Deutsch-NYC for their illuminating DTC campaign for Exelon Patch!

Lilly runs racy awareness effort

Eli Lilly & Co. is taking its Vision Racing Wellness Tour on another lap around the racing circuit, offering fans free diabetes screening.

Consumer Marketing Briefs

Featuring news about Boniva, DDMAC and the ED Advertising Decency Act

Marketing Research

Vantage Point: Finding a balance in pay for performace agreements

Pay for performance is not a new concept between health plan payers and providers, but very recently new risk/performance-based agreements between pharmas and payers have ...

Vermont court upholds commercial data ban

A federal court in Vermont quashed the efforts of several marketing research firms to overturn a statewide ban that restricts the use of prescriber-identifiable (PI) ...

GfK launches snapshot doc surveys

GfK launched a new product—Flashpoints—allowing marketers to survey 100 physicians in one week.

Agency Business

Agency Business Briefs

Featuring news about Cadient Interactive, GlobalHealthPR, AbelsonTaylor and Physician Reach

Washington Insider

As I see it: Discussions on the DTC moratorium

Yogi Berra had it right when he said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Comparative effectiveness will boost R&D: Woodcock

The FDA's director of drugs, Janet Woodcock, believes the movement toward comparative effectiveness research will lead to a more internationally harmonized drug development process.

FDA to speed up drug enforcement

The FDA's drug center is increasing and speeding up its enforcement actions, according to compliance director Deborah Autor.

Viewpoint

Should you put marketing dollars into Twitter?

Don't think of Twitter as your new website. It's not yet a must for all marketing mix models. So how can you tell if you ...

A marketer holding hands with patients, doctors

Brand teams have had huge success with traditional DTC advertising. Slowly but surely, new media channels were adopted, but the fundamentals remained the same: reach ...

Back Talk

Old ideas for the new world

My friend and former colleague, the late Steve Gross, was having dinner one night with the head of rheumatology from a major teaching hospital.  The ...