Boehringer Ingelheim Shows How to Support Patients via Twitter and Beyond

Boehringer Ingelheim Shows How to Support Patients via Twitter and Beyond

One of the uses for pharma Twitter accounts that many ePatient advocates recommend is to directly support patients seeking help regarding their Rx products (see, for example, this Pharma Marketing News (PMN) article: "Use of Twitter for Patient Support" [free pdf]).

Although nearly two-thirds of respondents to a PMN survey thought that using Twitter for patient support activities would be somewhat or very effective, relatively few pharmaceutical companies are doing this on a regular basis. From time to time, however, I do see it happening.

Today, for example, I discovered that Boehringer Ingelheim tweeters in Germany (@boehringer) responded to a tweet from a U.S. caregiver who was seeking help in purchasing Spiriva HandiHaler for her mother. First, this person complained to @BarackObama because of the high cost of the product:

@BarackObama @Messina2012 cam some1 tell me y my moms ESSENTIAL medication is $135.00 a month? That's 2 MUCH 4 some1 on a fixed income :-(

She then followed up with a tweet sent to the attention of @Boehringer:

@Boehringer hellol My mother needs 2 purchase Spiriva HandiHaler & her insurance wont cover it. Are there any coupons or assistance 4 this?

Although @Boehringer is the German-based Twitter account of BI, it did respond. Here's the conversation:

I commend BI for using Twitter to carry on a conversation about a product rather than just providing @Shaundre an 800 number to call. Also, BI -- in Germany -- has taken the extra step in contacting the US office on @Shaundre's behalf. Good job, BI!

Note that BI first asks if @Shaundre spoke to her (or her mother's) doctor about the issue. Preserving the patient-doctor relationship is important when pharma deals directly with patients or caregivers. About 57% of respondents to the survey mentioned above were of the opinion that use of Twitter by pharma for direct-to-patient support activities could be viewed by physicians as coming between them and their patients. Only 30% said these activities would not interfere with the patient-physician relationship.

UPDATE: @boehringerus, BI's U.S. Twitter account, posted this tweet:

@Shaundrie: Thank you for your message. Send your contact info to usnews@boehringer-ingelheim.com and we will contact you directly.

Predicting the Future of the Drug Industry: 2012 and Beyond

Predicting the Future of the Drug Industry: 2012 and Beyond

It's time to revisit a survey I ran a couple of years ago that attempted to predict future healthcare market scenarios that would impact the drug industry. The survey asks respondents how likely it is for certain events or conditions to unfold in the next 5 to 8 years (ie, 2012 to 2019).




You can take the survey here. But before you do that, let's review the first-round of results (ie, responses collected from 2 December 2009 through 8 January 2010). Events since then may have made some of the following scenarios more or less likely. You tell me.

The scenarios -- with my updated comments included in brackets [] -- that are included in the survey are as follows (see the chart afterward for the first-round results):

1. New follow-on biologics legislation in the U.S. will increase competition from generic equivalents and eventually decrease brand profits. [I think the legislation is still bogged down and when finalized may not have much impact within the time frame specified.]
2. Broadcast (ie, TV) Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) drug promotion will be banned or sharply curtailed by law in the U.S. [This may have been a big issue back in the day, but it doesn't seem to be center stage right now.]
3. The European Union will finally allow Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising to its citizens. [The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, recently ruled that pharma companies would not be allowed to disseminate information about drugs and their indications beyond a narrow set of circumstances. For the details, see, "In Rejecting Proposal, EU Dashes Drugmakers’ Hopes of Having a Voice"]
4. Internet-based drug promotion (including search engine marketing) will overtake TV-based DTC in the U.S. in terms of dollars spent. [There's still time for this to happen. I'm guessing that right now only about 5% (maybe 10% if you include search advertising) of pharma's DTC advertising budget is spent on Internet advertising whereas TV accounts for over 50% of the budget. See "Double Dip in DTC Spending Plus 33% Drop in Internet Display Ad Spending!"]
5. Due to decreasing effectiveness of traditional physician detailing and rise of non-personal detailing, the role of traditional sales representative will become obsolete. [I'm surprised that over 50% of respondents think this is likely to happen before 2020 (see chart below). Perhaps a sign is the recent closing of Pharmaceutical Representative Magazine (see here). Also read this article: "Consequences of eDetailing Technology".]
6. New healthcare reform legislation will dramatically increase the sales of drugs in the U.S.
7. Extensive outcomes data available to payers and comparative effectiveness research will force the industry much further down the path of pay-for-performance (ie, adopt a more flexible approach to pricing). [For background in this, read the article "A Case for Supporting Comparative Effectiveness Research".]
8. Patients will become even more influential and empowered in making healthcare decisions as they are forced to pay a larger share of costs and/or have access to health information from a variety of sources. [For more background on this, read the article "The Empowered Patient: What It Means for Pharma Marketers".]
9. Despite lack of innovative new drugs and/or generic competition, sales of brand drugs worldwide will show a sharp increase due to increased demand in emerging markets (eg, China). [See the following articles: "Getting Market Research Right in Emerging Markets", "Getting Market Research Right in the Middle East", and "Getting Market Research Right in India & China".]
10. More efficient targeting of drugs and marketing to specific patient populations will greatly increase effectiveness and decrease side effects of drugs. [See, for example, "New Big Pharma Economies of Scale: Less Patients Needed to Reach Blockbuster Sales". At least one targeted therapy (I can't recall which), however, recently failed and that may cast a shadow on progress in this area.]
11. Social media marketing will become a significant part (>10%) of the pharmaceutical marketing mix. [Hmmm... A lot of people seem to believe this is likely (see chart), but FDA's delay in issuing guidance may have dampened the outlook for pharma use of social media.]
12. The next BIG opportunity for targeted marketing to patients and physicians is mobile apps on "smart phones." [To prepare for this, I recommend you read the article "Everything You Need to Know About Mobile Platforms". Take the survey and you will get a discount code that allows you to get this at no charge.]
13. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies will continue to increase their outsourcing of clinical trials and related drug development. Outsourcing will account for more than 50% of R&D spending by 2019.

The following chart summarizes first-round (prior to January 2010) survey results. Please take the survey now and help me get a more current view of what may be dow the road.

Nobody Knows You're a Fake Patient on the Internet!

Nobody Knows You're a Fake Patient on the Internet!

Last night I had the honor of hosting the #socpharm "Tweetchat" session, standing in for Eileen O'Brien (@EileenObrien; Siren Interactive) who is the founder and regular host of that Twitter discussion stream.

One issue discussed in last night's session was Sara Baker, a "fake" patient created by MedSeek, a health IT company (see Lori Moore's comment to this post).

"Meet Sara Baker," says MedSeek on its website. "ePatients like Sara Baker are the future of eHealth. She uses the Internet to stay connected with friends, check her bank balance and make purchases. She is Web-savvy and expects her healthcare provider to be, too. She has growing expectations of her healthcare providers for 2011 and beyond. And she will be the driving force behind your healthcare organization's ePatient revenue center." [emphasis added]

MedSeek even created a Facebook page/personna (eSaraBaker) for Sara where she posts things like "Just found out my hospital is adding a new online feature starting June 1: Now I’ll be able to log in one time to manage everybody’s appointments, prescriptions, etc. Me, Alex, Brad and Jake… all in one place. How great is that?"

Phil Baumann (@PhilBaumann) first called attention to this marketing ploy that "promises to deliver revenues to healthcare organizations wishing to market to so-called ePatients." Baumann coined the term "fPatient" to distinguish the likes of Sara from real ePatients (see "fPatient – Ethics and Mediocrity in Healthcare Marketing").

The #socpharm discussion of Sara Baker lead to a discussion of the use of "fake" patients on drug.com websites, something I have written about many times here on Pharma Marketing Blog. See, for example, "Alice, 35, is Not a Real Ambien CR Patient." After I wrote that piece, sanofi-aventis added the disclaimer "Not a real patient" to the animation on the site. Since then, however, they have moved away from images of "fPatients" to roosters. Oh well.

The trend today, however, is to solicit and portray real patient stories. See, for example, "Barb" on the Novartis Reclast site. She's featured in a "Dramatic Health Production" video in the "Real Reclast Stories" section of the website (here).

Although Barb is real, there are other "patients" featured on the website who may not be real. Take "Rhoda" for example. There's a written profile of Rhoda, but I can't find her in the "Real Stories" section. Is she real or fake? I can't say for sure one way or the other.

Obviously, actors are used in direct-to-consumer (DTC) Rx drug ads all the time. Sometimes, we are lead to believe that actors playing doctors in TV ads are real doctors or actually rowing when they are not (see "Jarvik: A Modern DTC Tragedy"). On TV we also see actors portraying patients. Sometimes they even speak and say how the drug helped them. Most often, however, these "patients" don't really say anything. They certainly are not identified by name and age as is the case with "Rhoda" and other questionable "patients" on drug.com websites.

Is it ethical for pharma marketers to employ "fpatients?" Is it even necessay? asks Baumann: "Is the deployment of fake profiles in Healthcare Marketing even necessary? Marketing not only has to be effective, it also has to be respectable. Why create a fake social object when so much more social capital can be built by simply being honest and truthful and direct? Why not take advantage of direct interaction and feedback?"

We might have to wait until hell freezes over before pharma marketers are "honest and truthful and direct" let alone before they "take advantage of direct interaction and feedback." Like the Reclast marketers, however, pharma marketers will go on location to videotape a real patient and create a well-crafted, edited video profile that they can feature on their websites and on YouTube for extra-added search engine benefit. You can't get that kind of ROI from "truthful, direct, honest interaction."