The Big Problem with Pharma & the Internet

Just hours after the research that the popular drug Lantus by Sanofi-Aventis was linked to cancer, the internet was buzzing.  Patients taking the drug had a right to be concerned and hit the internet to learn all of the information they could.  However, they didn’t learn anything positive.  AirCheese monitored Lantus for 7 days and found that the most popular things being posted on the internet (and there were a lot of them), were nearly all negative AGAINST Lantus and Sanofi.  The most popular phrase used to describe it was “cause cancer.”  Uh oh.

The big uh oh for Sanofi, is that the link between cancer and Lantus is ostensibly shaky at best.  However, one would never know from reading the internet’s sensationalized doomsday articles.  The issue was magnified by panic, which in the world of real-time, became a big problem for Sanofi.  One glimpse at their recent stock chart and you can see how big of a problem it really was.

The problem with the pharmaceutical and medical industry is that the internet is an inherent enemy.  Sure it may be great to get a listing of drug interactions or some crappy sales jargon, but all in all the internet breeds WebMD –induced hypochondriacs that are rarely if ever going to prop up a drug, but are sure going to tell you if something is wrong with it.

This is why it was all the more surprising that Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a J&J company, started a YouTube channel to promote the use of the Realize Adjustable Gastric Band as an alternative to gastric bypass surgery.  Yikes, J&J, yikes.  Are you really attempting to get people to become a “friend” or “subscriber” of the Realize Band (yes, this “friend” thing has gone too far)?  Who wants to put in their facebook profile, “I’m Suzzy and a fatass, but I sure love my Realize Band?”  What’s next the “we crap ourselves” group for colitis patients?  This is not to downplay serious medical problems, but really, do we need to share this online?  Clearly, J&J’s experiment has failed miserably, as evidenced by the fact that after almost two months online, they have garnered a whopping 32 subscribers to their YouTube channel.  Last count, kittens in sweaters had over a half million.  Booya Realize Band.

The second problem is that they have created an epicenter for complaints.  Where this is good for a retail outfit like Starbucks where actionable responses can be made to complaints, what can J&J really do if someone posts “my Realize band snapped” on their facebook group?  It’s not like they can quick change the drug/device, get it FDA approved, and distribute it.  On top of that, the FDA has strict reporting guidelines for any side-effect information about a drug that is sent to the company.  Every minor grievance would legally have to be sent to the FDA.  This is a royal disaster.

So the message is clear to big pharma: Monitor and play defense.  Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.  If you aren’t likely to hear only good things or be able to make an actionable response to bad things, don’t give people a forum.