November 2009 Issue of MMM

Editor's Desk

Guidance is golden

After last year's MM&M Awards produced success stories for numerous "nimble, smaller" shops, it was interesting to see some of the big boys fighting back ...

Features

Sales Force Report: The Online Rep

How Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, Pfizer and others are turning to the web to better train sales reps and get more "face" time with ...

An Orphan's Tale

When your patient population is just 10,000, the pharma marketing rulebook goes out of the window. Ben Comer examines one of the most successful ultra ...

Social Standards

With FDA set to hold its first public hearings on Internet promotion in 13 years, Matthew Arnold looks at the key questions and what might ...

Headliner: NPR's Scott Hensley

Scott Hensley is a little like digital health journalism's Johnny Appleseed. Having served as the founding editor of the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Hensley ...

Antidote

Antidote: vaccine mongering

Readers of this column are not surprised at the firestorm of vaccine mongering--entirely unsubstantiated and inflammatory, that has been leveled at the new swine flu ...

In Focus

FDA rethinks its risk communications

Last month, FDA issued its Strategic Plan for Risk Communication, a 44-page tome 10 years in the making by multiple agency and external committees.

Professional Marketing

Department of Labor backs reps on OT pay

The US Department of Labor (DOL) filed an amicus brief with a federal appeals court in support of Novartis sales reps fighting for overtime compensation.

Cegedim launches Mobile Intelligence CRM application

Cegedim Dendrite released its flagship Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite, Mobile Intelligence, for BlackBerry smartphone users.

Professional Marketing briefs

Featuring news about Access Pharma, iMedicor, MuGard, Ariad Healthcare, EMD Serono and Aptilon

Med Ed Report

GSK swears off commercial CME

GlaxoSmithKline is cutting off commercial CME providers, following Pfizer's lead.

ACCME to Senate Aging: conflict cop is on the beat

The ACCME submitted additional testimony to the Senate Special Committee on Aging, pushing back against the notions that the boundary between promotion and education in ...

Med Ed Report briefs

Featuring news about The New England Journal of Medicine, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Merck, Schering-Plough, Wyeth and Agency DesignWrite

Professional Media

Sage launches asthma and allergy title

Sage announced plans to launch a new bimonthly journal in February 2010, titled the Journal of Asthma & Allergy Educators (JAAE).

Social network geared at HCPs

Serviance Media launched a new social network - TheMedicalStop.com - for all members of the healthcare community, from EMTs and hospital administrators to physicians, sales ...

Professional Media briefs

Featuring news about Oakstone Medical, RadiologyDaily.com, Cold Spring Publishing, The Journal of Advanced Practitioner in Oncology and MedPage Today

Media Forum

Reps, docs need to meet in the middle

With the proliferation of tablet PCs and off-site interactions, are sales reps able to engender the same kind of personal touch with doctors that both ...

Digital Media

MSN debuts health management site

MSN announced the launch of My Health Info, a new site for consumers that incorporates Microsoft's HealthVault profiles into a comprehensive offering that includes tools ...

Everyday Health adds virtual doc

Everyday Health launched a tool allowing patients to query a video doctor by entering a symptom, and then responding to follow-up questions.

Cook unveils CookBiodesign.com

Cook Medical launched a third site for physicians and consumers, this time focusing on a suite of tissue repair products.

Digital Media briefs

Featuring news about Quintiles, ClinicalResearch.com, Merck, The Merck Manual, Google Health and MDLiveCare

Consumer Marketing

DDR on DTC: Humira

Abbott Laboratories has achieved something quite rare with the latest DTC print campaign for Humira, its rheumatoid athritis (RA) drug.

Novo Nordisk, BI tout diabetes awareness month

November is Diabetes Awareness Month and manufacturers in the space, including Boehringer Ingelheim and Novo Nordisk, are observing it with educational campaigns.

Pfizer shifts Viagra to McGarryBowen

Pfizer has given McCann HumanCare the heave-ho on its Viagra consumer account, awarding the business to McGarryBowen following a review.

Wyeth taps Jane Seymour for European RA campaign

Wyeth enlisted actress and artist Jane Seymour for an unbranded rheumatoid arthritis (RA) campaign in Europe.

FDA letters slew sponsored links

The FDA's 14 letters warning companies about sponsored links on search engines all but eliminated industry use of the media, according to ComScore.

Consumer Marketing briefs

Featuring news about the American College of Physicians, FDA, Proctor & Gamble, Tampax, Myriad Genetics and the BRACAnalysis test

Marketing Research

Vantage Point: the changing healthcare world

I've heard people say that the questions in this business never change; only the answers change. I might have bought this as a point of ...

Sermo offers on-demand physician focus groups

Sermo is offering clients on-demand physician focus groups.

MDLinx touts its MRA Verified panel

MDLinx, a division of M3 USA, had its physician panel verified by the Marketing Research Association (MRA), a process that involved a review of MDLinx's ...

Agency Business

WeissComm bolsters its digital team

The WeissComm Group (WCG) hired European blogger and podcaster Neville Hobson to head social media activities in Europe, and also added new digital-focused employees in ...

IPG combines Deutsch, Lowe

Interpublic Group (IPG) aligned its Deutsch and Lowe Worldwide agencies in North America. Deutsch will now oversee and manage Lowe's US offices, including Lowe Health.

Agency Business briefs

Featuring news about Baer Consulting, RxED, Porter Novelli, Loomis Group Health, Capella Advisors and CommonHealth

Washington Insider

As I see it

By getting back to basics, the FDA's new leadership says its first priority is to restore public confidence in an agency whose public esteem has ...

Agency begins 'swift' enforcement actions

Less than three weeks after FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg pledged better enforcement against firms violating agency laws and regulations, swifter and more aggressive actions by ...

FDA testing benefit/risk framework

The FDA says it is developing a qualitative framework for benefit/risk analysis out of recent case studies that suggested five key considerations a regulator must ...