How High Technology Can Help Improve Pharma's Reputation & Increase Sales

A pharma sales rep avatar

World of DTC Marketing blogger Rich Myer asked "How should pharma respond when attacked?" This was in response to the critique of pharmaceutical marketing practices by John Oliver (see here).

Myer started out with the premise that consumers just don't understand all the good that drugs do to improve health and save lives and how much money pharma companies spend on research. Which, as Myer says, doesn't "mean a damn thing if the consumer perception of the pharma industry is in the dirt."

Other than "work[ing] harder to earn trust and demonstrate everyday that we provide benefits to patients and society," Myer has no answer to his question.

Myer, however, implies that technology -- specifically the Internet -- stands in the way because what the pharma industry says in its defense "is not going to be heard in an age when everyone with Internet access is an opinion leader."

I would like to suggest, however, that the Internet and other digital technologies -- especially mobile -- can help pharma improve its reputation. How so?

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