Vendors Advise Pharmas to Blog. Pharma Says He's Scared

Recently I was interviewed by Robin Robinson , an editor of ePharm5, a sister of Inc. magazine that serves the pharmaceutical industry.  I was surprised on two accounts: (1) that anyone in the pharma industry even knew that Naked Conversations existed, and (2) Robin showed both a knowledge of and enthusiasm for blogging, a confirmation of my core belief that blogging is going everywhere and will become almost as common in business as the email account.

Robin and I have done a little bantering in background. She shared with me that she was just back from conference where there was a vendor/pharma panel talk where four out of five panelists recommended that the pharmas embrace blogging.  The four who endorsed it were vendors.  The one who did not was Pfizer, a huge pharma who's spokesperson considered it too scary because the industry is so highly regulated.

If they asked me (fat chance), I'd tell them if they were afraid of information leakage and compliance deviations, they'd be wise to shut down their email. According to Charlene Li, of Forrester Research, whose in the business of tracking these issue, there is not a single case of litigation or loss of confidential information through blogging.  Yet, the same occurs through email on a near-daily basis, conservatively speaking.

                                                                  

Comments

[Fard Johnmar]

Interesting, interesting. I and others in the "healthcare blogosphere" have been pushing for pharma to get into the blogging game. However, pharma shouldn't fear the FDA and other regulators. The agency will likely judge each blog on its merits and determine whether it is "on label."

However, pharma should check with the FDA directly to get their take on this. It would be interesting to see what the FDA says because they really don't have an full-fledged Internet policy to guide pharma and device companies about what can and cannot happen on-line.

Thanks for your support of our cause!

[Jim Minatel]

Living in a town that lives on Big Pharma (Indy - Lilly) I'll be stunned when I see big pharma employees allowed and/or encouraged to blog. From all the current and former employees of that company I've ever known, blogging is the antithesis of their corporate climate.
Not that I don't hope and wish they would, but they won't. Wish one of them would prove me wrong.