October 2009 Issue of MMM

Editor's Desk

The leaves continue to fall

If you want to see something really ugly, then you need look no further than the journal advertising numbers for the first half of 2009.

Features

The Patient Marketing Report: Group Therapy

Pharma companies like Novo Nordisk are finding success by reaching out to existing patient communities. Ben Comer looks at the latest trends

Journal Ad Review: The Hit Parade

Medical/surgical journals have seen better days but there is a silver lining in the sector that has been hit hard the past few years. Anthony ...

Branded vs. Unbranded: Divided Attention

Pharmaceutical marketers increasingly have a difficult time trying to gain 'share of voice' with physicians, with fewer reps granted access. How can branded and unbranded ...

Adherence: Framing Compliance

Fresh approaches to observational research can uncover the causes of poor adherence, says Laura Winn Johnson

Headliner: WeissComm Group's Bob Pearson

Bob Pearson doesn't want to hear any more excuses for poor or non-existent social media programs from healthcare companies.

Antidote

Antidote: Finding a new flu vaccine

The day will come soon when all flu vaccines are grown in cell culture, using genetic splicing techniques to provoke and immunologic (antibody) response rather ...

In Focus

Pfizer settles for record-breaking $2.3B

Pfizer had to cough up $2.3 billion in September, as part of a fraud settlement to resolve criminal and civil liability charges arising from the ...

Professional Marketing

Roska inks NPP deal with Cephalon

Roska Healthcare has developed a non-personal promotion (NPP) strategy for Cephalon's skeletal muscle relaxant, Amrix.

Digital continues to have impact on pharma says study

According to data from a white paper by Manhattan Research, the average physician spends a full work day [about eight hours] each week using the ...

Professional Marketing briefs

Featuring news about Baxter Healthcare, Purohit Navigation, Cegedim Dendrite and Boehringer Ingelheim

Professional Media

AMA hops on social media bandwagon

In just over a month, the American Medical Association (AMA) has launched a YouTube channel, a blog written by AMA president James Rohack and a ...

Software advises clinical decisions

Wolters Kluwer Health launched a software platform for nurses, pharmacists, therapists and other caregivers to provide clinical decision support at the point of care.

Media Forum

Helping patients to help themselves

Most patients get a second opinion online before filling a script or continuing therapy. What are some of the most effective ways to reach patients ...

Digital Media

WebMD, FDA partnership progresses

WebMD and the FDA will roll out the second phase of their partnership this fall with the addition of five condition-specific online FDA centers.

Boehringer Ingelheim expands with Twitter, YouTube

Boehringer Ingelheim launched new YouTube videos and a channel devoted to Parkinson's disease, while the company's US operations launched a Twitter feed, following its German ...

Digital Media briefs

Featuring news about Everyday Health, FDA, Twitter, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of Philadelphia and the Cleveland Clinic

Consumer Marketing

DDR on DTC: ED drugs

Even though DTC is a relatively new phenomenon, it has two pioneering grandpas who are still going strong...and have much to teach the young whippersnappers ...

Allergan taps Twilight star for acne interactive ads

Allergan is tweaking two teen cultural sensations with a High School Musical-themed interactive campaign for its acne medication Aczone, starring Michael Welch of Twilight fame.

Merck debuts HIV/AIDS video series

Merck bolstered its HIV/AIDS education effort with a new online video series starring Jack Mackenroth of Project Runway.

McEnroe in GSK prostate cancer awareness campaign

GlaxoSmithKline recruited tennis great John McEnroe for an awareness campaign about prostate cancer.

Poll: insurers first in blame game

Americans blame health insurance companies more than pharmas for problems with the US healthcare system��but not by much.

Consumer Marketing briefs

Featuring news about UCB, Sanofi-Aventis, PhRMA and AstraZeneca

Marketing Research

Vantage Point: Market research and social media

The rapid growth of social media is fundamentally changing how pharma brands communicate with their target audiences. Now, brands not only talk to customers, customers ...

TNS Healthcare merges into KantarHealth

WPP formally launched KantarHealth, an amalgam of four companies that bundles global research with consulting capabilities.

GfK to provide managed care panels

GfK Healthcare launched a new product to provide pharma marketers with the ability to access and query a panel of managed market workers representing the ...

Agency Business

Ferguson opens OTC specialty shop

Feguson, a CommonHealth professional shop, launched a new "OTC Center of Excellence" focused on OTC marketing and promotion.

Spectrum hires two in DC office

Spectrum, a founding partner of GlobalHealthPR, an international communications network, added two new employees at its Washington DC headquarters.

Agency Business briefs

Featuring news about Palio, Zemoga, MicroMass, Worldwide Partners, Inc. (WPI) and Merkle

Washington Insider

As I see it: Search engine regulation

Until earlier this year, most drug manufacturers had been operating under the same policy relating to the use of sponsored links on search engines as ...

Comparative drug info labeling helps doctors

Stanford University researchers say that drug labeling would be much more informative for doctors and patients if it had to include comparative effectiveness information.

Change FDA promo guidance: group

Two industry groups, one representing health communicators and the other medical device makers, have sharply criticized a draft FDA guidance on how to present risk ...

Viewpoint

Portal combat: pull the plug on pharma HCP sites

Strange how some bad ideas have a way of sticking around. Commercials in movie theaters, the cellophane they use to imprison DVDs and, in pharmaceutical ...

Pharma support makes health reform more likely

After widespread press coverage of "death panels" and boisterous August town halls, many Americans might well be wondering if it's déjà vu all over again—will ...

Back Talk

DDMAC losing patience

In its August 2009 blizzard of compliance correspondence, DDMAC used some of the harshest language in recent Warning Letter memory to send what can only ...