Ad Execs Not Viewed as Innovative By Americans Says AstraZeneca Survey

Ad Execs Not Viewed as Innovative By Americans Says AstraZeneca Survey

Sorry to break this to you, but Americans don't think advertising executives are very innovative. This is according to the AstraZeneca Innovation Survey (find it here).

"By carrying out this survey we sought to shed some light on what innovation means to people around the world and whether they believe it is valuable to society as a whole," said David Brennan, AZ CEO.

The survey shows that Americans think advertising executives are only as innovative as teachers, but much less innovative than doctors, artists, engineers, or scientists (see chart below; click on image for a larger view).

But in the "emerging" nations of India and China -- where pharma pins its hopes for the future of sales -- advertising executives are seen as much more innovative than doctors and somewhat more innovative than musicians.

I'm thinking of starting up an Indo-Asian edition of Pharma Marketing News!

"Distributed Denial of Service" Attacks: Is Pharma Ready for Cyber Warfare?

"Distributed Denial of Service" Attacks: Is Pharma Ready for Cyber Warfare?

I think it was an American journalist (A.J. Liebling) who said "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." I was reminded of this after Senator Joe Lieberman pressured Amazon.com to remove WikiLeaks docs from its cloud servers and Amazon complied.

This concerns me. But of even greater concern to me is the spate of hacker attacks against Wikileaks and counter-attacks against Amazon and other web sites like Mastercard and Paypal that have also ceased doing business with WikiLeaks (see, for example, "Hackers Give Web Companies a Test of Free Speech").

Who's next?

Perhaps pharmaceutical companies are next. What's to prevent some hacker from deciding that the Lyrica.com web site should be shut down because he/she took issue with print ads that may be in violation of FDA regulations (eg, see "Pfizer's Latest Lyrica DTC Ad Should Be Cited By FDA as Misleading")?

I am not technically savvy enough to know how these attacks are done, but I understand it's a fairly simple thing to do. And I don't know how Web sites can protect themselves from hacker attacks in general.

But one thing I suspect: many pharmaceutical may not have a plan in place to protect their web sites. I know form experience that even the largest pharmaceutical company in the world was not too technically savvy about how to start up a twitter account and keep abreast of what was being said about it on Twitter (see "Follow Who's Following Me on Twitter. But NOT Phishy 'pfizer' Please!").

What do you think?

My Pharma Social Media Communication Experiment

My Pharma Social Media Communication Experiment

I'm trying a little experiment today. I'm trying to use social media -- specifically Twitter -- to directly contact the press relations people (aka corporate communications staff) at a major pharmaceutical company (ie, Pfizer) about a Lyrica print ad that I blogged about a few days ago (see "Pfizer's Latest Lyrica DTC Ad Should Be Cited By FDA as Misleading").

[SEE UPDATE AT END OF THIS POST FOR RESULTS.]

I was urged to do this after the following exchange with Bruce Grant on my Facebook Page:

• Bruce Grant I think you should ask to see the evidence rather than speculate that it does not exist.
  

  Tuesday at 9:51pm · 
• 
  

  John Mack Well, Bruce, in this day and age of social media, I think what I did on my blog WAS to ask. Also, IF there is such evidence, my point is that it SHOULD be cited in the ads themselves.
  

  22 hours ago · 
• 
  

  Bruce Grant I remember the original social media -- mail and telephones. And when I was a journalist and had a question like this, I would call or write directly to the company with my inquiry...not wait to be overheard. Just sayin'. (BTW, did you check the Brief Summary page for references?)

  John Mack

  I did check the brief summary page, but I must admit I did not look for references. I will do that and see what I can find. Thanks for pointing that out. Usually, however, in physician ads anyway, there would be an asterisk to call attentio...n to specific sources of data cited.
  
  As I often say, I am NOT a journalist, especially when I am writing the blog. As you know, I have limited resources, except for my readers who often help me find answers. And that's really the point of my blog -- to stimulate discussion, which is the one thing many people say they appreciate. I will continue to respond to that need expressed by my readers.

I know for a fact that @Pfizer_news -- Pfizer's official corporate Twitter account -- follows me on Twitter. Pfizer uses this account to communicate Pfizer news to journalists among other stakeholders. Although I am not a journalist, I know that Pfizer is interested in keeping bloggers like me in the loop (see, for example, "The Social Media Revolution Will Not Be 'Televised'").

So, here's what I have done:

1. I tweeted this today at about 7:30 AM: "I hv bn urged by @grantbw 2 contact @Pfizer_news re this Lyrica print ad that I think FDA shld cite as misleading: http://bit.ly/fGBhwl" and
2. I DM'd (sent a direct message through Twitter to) @pfizer_news: "Who can I call about this Lyrica ad issue: http://bit.ly/fGBhwl" I also followed up with a DM giving Pfizer my phone number and direct e-mail address in case they want to respond to me "old school."

Since @Pfizer_news follows me, the person who monitors that account may see my tweet and SHOULD get my DM.

Everyone seems to be praising social media apps like Twitter for their communication abilities and I sure find it more convenient to use Twitter to contact Pfizer directly rather than witing for regular business hours to call by phone, which I know will be hellishly frustrating!. This is an experiment to see if it works. I will keep you posted.

UPDATE #1: At 11:49 AM I received this DM from @pfizer_news: "I've forwarded your message to Victoria Davis. Thanks." Victoria Davis is a Pfizer Media Relations primary care specialist who focuses on these products: Chantix, Lipitor, Apixaban, Premarin Family, Spiriva, Viagra and Pristiq. I'm not sure why @pfizer_news passed on my message to Victoria instead of, for example, Mackay Jimeson who is responsible for Lyrica, Celebrex, Spiriva, Toviaz, Dimebon, Apixaban, Tanezumab, Lipitor, Viagra, Chantix. But it's all good.

Meanwhile, beginning at about 9:10 AM I started calling by phone some of the people listed on Pfizer's News & Media page, including Chris Loder, Christine Neese, and MacKay Jimeson. I also called the general media contact number. They all were not available, so I left voicemail messages.

Finally, around 1:30 PM, Chris Loder, Pfizer's Head of US Media Relations, gave me a call and said he needed some time to research the issue, but promised someone would followup soon.

So, I'm happy to report that Pfizer is listening & responding via Twitter/social media. But I am not sure if it was Twitter or all the phone calls I made that got the attention of Chris. My bad for not doing a very good controlled study.

More later...

Pfizer's Latest Lyrica DTC Ad Should Be Cited By FDA as Misleading

Pfizer's Latest Lyrica DTC Ad Should Be Cited By FDA as Misleading

Do you have "chronic widespread MUSCLE pain?" That's the question asked in a Lyrica direct-to-consumer (DTC) print Ad in a recent issue of Prevention magazine (see image below). "The answer may be over-active NERVES," says the ad. The implication is that Lyrica treats "muscle pain" caused by "over-active nerves."

Yet Lyrica is officially approved by the FDA "to treat Diabetic Nerve Pain, Pain after Shingles, and Fibromyalgia. LYRICA is also indicated to treat Partial Onset Seizures in adults with epilepsy who take 1 or more drugs for seizures." Neither "widespread MUSCLE pain" nor "Over-active NERVES" is mentioned in the approved labeling for Lyrica. And the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that the causes of fibromyalgia are "unknown."

Pfizer even includes a diagram (left) showing how Lyrica "calms" the nerves, which "can provide significant relief from Fibromyalgia pain."

I think that all this is speculative hocus pocus that is not based on any reputable science at all! This is shameful coming from a company and an industry that promotes itself as being "science-based."

I'd like to see (1) references to scientific data, trials, etc. that supports Pfizer's hypothesis that fibromyalgia, aka "widespread muscle pain", is caused by "over-active NERVES" and (2) data to support the claim that Lyrica "calms" over-active nerves.

FDA "warning letters" often state that "Promotional materials are misleading if they suggest that a drug is useful in a broader range of conditions or patients than has been demonstrated by substantial evidence or substantial clinical experience." If Pfizer has no data to support the claims made in this ad, then the FDA should cite it as being misleading. That's my opinion. What do you think?