Pharma Influence Over ePatients: Marketing Tactics That Worked for Physicians are Working for Patients, But It's Called "Patient Centricity"

I attended ExL Pharma's ePatient Connections conference (#ePatCon on Twitter) in Philadelphia this past Thursday and met a few interesting people. Although some pundits doubt the usefulness of these conferences, it's always good to get out of the box of your office and talk to people - you might learn something. Let me share what I learned.

A majority of the ePatients attending were presenters sponsored by my friends at WEGO Health who paid their expenses. WEGO Health funds its support for its Health Activist community through transparent, community-vetted advertising and sponsorships from health companies: research, content development, education, events, conferences, distribution programs, ad networks and more.

Every ePatient I spoke to at the conference wants a pharmaceutical company to hire him or her. As one person told me, "I want to turn my avocation into a vocation." That person has a Twitter account (@tvsoccerdad) with less than a thousand followers. Other ePatients boast of having a few thousand followers on Twitter. But it's their experience and passion that really qualifies them as paid consultants to pharma.

Indeed, many ePatient tweeters and bloggers are being paid by pharma. One example is the German MS patient blogger/journalist I wrote about some time ago who contributes articles to "Living Like You," a Novartis Pharma AG website. The problem is, most of the time these ePatients do not reveal the nature of their relationship with pharma (read "Transparency is Good in Theory, But Not in Practice").

What other ways can ePatients work with pharma?

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The Bayer Healthcare Grants4Apps® Team Receives the 6th Annual Pharmaguy SoMobile Pioneer Award!

For immediate release:

Philadelphia, PA, October 29, 2015: Today, at the ePatient Connections conference, Pharmaguy presented the 6th Annual Pharmaguy™ SoMobile Pioneer Award to Bayer HealthCare Grants4Apps (#G4A) team.

Team Members Include:

• Esther-Kristin Lather, Program Manager (left in photo)
• Jesus del Valle, Head of Grants4Apps (center in photo)
• Mathilde Saingeon, Match Maker (right in photo)
• Jannis Busch, Operations (not shown) 

The Bayer HealthCare Grants4Apps™ program invites health app developers to submit their innovative app ideas for novel software that contributes to improving health outcomes or pharmaceutical processes. Bayer HealthCare considers an "App" as software solution based on any platform. The program offers dedicated office space for five digital health startups to support them in further advancing their projects and business models. Each startup receives up to 50,000 Euros. Bayer offers experienced managers as coaches to the startups, in addition to intensive mentoring by external entrepreneurs.

What is the Pharmaguy SoMobile Pioneer Award?

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Journalists & Physicians Use Superlatives, Some Supplied by FDA - e.g., "Breakthrough" - to Describe Unapproved Cancer Drugs

The use of superlatives to describe cancer drugs in news articles as “breakthrough,” “revolutionary,” “miracle” or in other grandiose terms was common even when drugs were not yet approved, had no clinical data or not yet shown overall survival benefits, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology (JAMA Oncol. Published online October 29, 2015).

The authors searched for 10 superlatives (breakthrough, game changer, miracle, cure, home run, revolutionary, transformative, life saver, groundbreaking and marvel) in conjunction with the term “cancer drug” in a Google news search earlier this year between June 21 and June 25. The authors found 94 articles from 66 news outlets with 97 superlative mentions meeting the study criteria and referring to 36 specific drugs. Half of the drugs described had not yet received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for at least one indication.

Most of the 97 superlatives were used by journalists (55 percent); physicians (27 percent); industry experts (9 percent); patients (8 percent) and one member of Congress (1 percent). In 55 percent of the cases, the superlative was used by the author of the article without any other attribution.

Where do these journalists and physicians get their information about investigational drugs; i.e., drugs that have not yet been approved by the FDA?

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Amgen Wants to Own Your Protected Health Information in Exchange for Copay Card

Amgen is the Rumpelstiltskin of the drug industry.

As reported by MedPage Today/CardioBrief, "Doctors, pharmacists, patients and others are now starting to learn that in order to receive financial assistance from Amgen for its expensive new cholesterol drug Repatha, patients are being required to surrender rights to their personal information, including their personal health information."

Not even HIPAA-protected health information is off limits.

"The agreement specifically states that by agreeing to the terms [of Amgen's privacy policy] patients may lose federal HIPAA protection," notes CardioBrief.

Patients must agree that they "understand that Amgen may use [their] personal information, including [their] personal health information, for 10 years once [they] accept this Authorization ..."

What other nasty things must poor people agree to in order to get a copay card?

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5 Reasons Why I Follow Martin Shkreli on Twitter

Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical, has been called "the most hated man on the Internet" after he raised the price of a generic AIDS and cancer drug by exploiting a few FDA loopholes (see here).

Despite that, there are at least 5 reasons why I chose to follow him on Twitter.

#1: He Has a REAL Enigma Machine!
I always wanted one of these and I'm jealous that Mr. Shkreli has one. What pharma CEO would also not like to have an Enigma machine?

But the real Enigma is Shkreli himself! He recently tweeted: "New Enigma machine for our office. Perhaps it will help us crack the code in drug development."

Code? What code? We don' need no stinking' code! Unless the "code" is buy a cheap generic drug and exploit loopholes to jack up the price.

He tweeted the photo shown here as proof that he has the machine as well as some other junk he may or may not be using to help crack the drug development "code."

That's just a "wow" reason. Here are some other more important reasons why I chose to follow Shkreli on Twitter.

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Baleno : Premium play using a phased-out brand?

Brand: Baleno
Company:  Maruti Suzuki

Brand Analysis count:  # 560

Maruti Suzuki Ltd ( MSL) is in the process of  foraying into the premium hatchback ( B+) segment with the launch of Baleno. The announcement was surprising to me since the company which is struggling to break into the premium segment has chosen to name the product with a phased out brand!

Interestingly, Baleno was MSL's foray into the premium sedan segment, 16 years ago. Baleno was first launched in 1999. Although the car was exceptional in terms of quality, MSL priced the product exorbitantly high. In 1999, the brand was priced at 8 lakhs. This along with the general VFM perception of Maruti brand caused a lukewarm response to Baleno. Later Baleno reduced the price substantially to around Rs 5.5 lakhs. Despite these efforts, Baleno failed to deliver volumes resulting in its withdrawal in 2006. It is said that the quality of the product is evident in the fact that Baleno is still used as a racing car in India.

It is in this context that the launch of the new Baleno hatchback becomes interesting. MSL has stated that it aims to break into the premium segment of the Indian automotive market. The company had created a premium distribution network branded as Nexa. The company had launched its premium crossover S-Cross through Nexa. 

Everyone knows that MSL has the issue of being perceived as a value-for-money brand. Many experts suggest that more than the VFM perception, the brand Maruti have an issue with the design. So far no product from MSL was having a premium design. 

When  the company has such a perception problem existing, why would it launch a " premium" car with a brand which was phased out? Frankly I don't see any logic or rationale behind that move. Baleno, in my personal view, doesn't have a lasting equity which  could help in the new product launch. Further, the new product is a hatchback and not a sedan. 

So what is the value that the old brand Baleno is bringing to the new product is puzzling. Baleno is also a product which failed due to its high ( premium) pricing. Now MSL is launching a high-priced hatchback in that same name is nothing but an irony. The only logic I see is that the Baleno hatchback is a global product and hence the brand. 

In my opinion, MSL has lost an opportunity to build a premium brand. By launching Nexa, the company wanted to create a separate identity away from old Maruti products. When the company has invested so much in creating a different identity, why would it bring back a brand which has the baggage of history? 

Premium-ness comes from exclusivity, stellar performance and brand equity. I wonder how could anyone relate premium-ness to a brand which was phased out because it was not successful?

On the branding front, I consider the Baleno branding as a big mistake. Baleno hatchback would be a successful product probably as a VFM product and I doubt whether it would be a premium brand as wished by MSL.

Meme: "Yer talkin' Pish," Says Pfizer Chief Bean Counter Ian Read

In a Forbes interview, Pfizer's CEO (an accountant, born in Scotland no less) was quoted as saying to employees: “I’m not going to talk about mission or vision. We’ve got to talk about imperatives.” Namely, cutting costs and pleasing shareholders.

He also said some other interesting things.

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EU and UK Physician Payment Sunshine Coming - May Eclipse US Version

In June 2012, the “code on disclosure of transfers of value from pharmaceutical companies to healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations” was announced by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). Starting 1 July 2016, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) will publish details of British pharmaceutical company payments made to healthcare professionals, including nurses and pharmacists.


This goes beyond the US Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which doesn’t require companies to publicly report payments to nurse practitioners or physician assistants, even though they are allowed to write prescriptions in most states (see here). This, however, may change if legislation proposed by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., becomes law. The legislation would expand the disclosure requirement beginning in 2017 to include physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified registered nurse anesthetists and certified nurse midwives (read more about that here).

What do UK health professionals think of ABPI's plans to publish these data?

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@AZHelps Celebrates, But Does It Actually Help People?

I wasn't able to attend ExL's Digital Pharma East (DPE15) conference last week in Philly, so I assume no tough questions were asked. For example, nobody asked AstraZeneca if its @AZHelps Twitter account actually helps people.

@AZHelps was featured in a "Customer Service Fireside Chat," which focused on opportunities for pharma to "build a stronger relationship between Marketing/Communications and Customer Service, perhaps even driving additional revenue and better health outcomes."

Leigh Householder (innovation officer at GSW and the editor of the Health Experience Project) wrote a glowing report, which summarized how @AZHelps supposedly works:

"AstraZeneca has been investing in supporting people via social media for 6 years. Their goal is to educate patients about available resources (including cost, access, affordability) and to address specific product inquiries.

"AZhelps uses Hootsuite to listen for comments about their products. When they see a comment that meets their engagement criteria, they respond. Clear rules of engagement mean they don’t respond to every tweet they see.

"They’ve built their social support system right in the call center with someone (Heather!) who is experienced addressing customer questions and is scheduled and dedicated to the task."

I find it hard to believe, however, that @AZHelps drives revenue or better outcomes or that it even marginally helps people. Read on to find out why...

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Mastering Mobile Social Media to Improve Health Outcomes

I gave the following presentation at a Bayer Pharma's STEM4Health Master Class Meetup in Berlin on 23 September 2015.

Mastering Mobile Social Media to Improve Health Outcomes from Pharmaguy

Brand Update : Peter England wants you to Be Everything You Love

Peter England that came to India with the promise of an Honest Shirt, has undergone yet another change. This time, the brand has seen a significant change in its personality. From a stiff collar personality, Peter England has become a very youth, adventurous brand. The change in the brand personality is now reflected in the new TVC. Along with the new personality, the brand has also adopted a new tagline " Be Everything You Love ".

Watch the new TVC here: Peter England - Be everything you love

The brand that was launched in 1997 had made a significant positioning change in 2010 when it adopted the tagline " Beginning of Good Things ". The brand had a celebrity endorser at that time. Even then, the brand's personality was that of an affable, honest, serious brand.
In the new avatar, Peter England has become a new person. The new personality reflected by the main actor in the advertisement is young, adventurous and probably irreverent. This is a serious shift from the original brand's persona.
Along these years, the brand has also added more products to its portfolio, including belts, bags and the like. The brand is trying to woo the new young generation and this effort is reflected in the new commercial.
But sadly the theme that the brand has used in the new avatar is used many times by other brands. The interview setting, the older interviewers, and the  smart young hero all looks so cliched and stereotyped. While the move towards new personality is justified, the execution of the new positioning seems to be below average.
It is also to be noted that the young man depicting the brand's personality has not done everything he loves and wishes to do so in the next five years. That prompts me to ask why is he not doing it now ??