Example of social media initiatives for the pharmaceutical industry

The unique feature of social media is that it allows a dialogue on the web versus a one way information stream given on websites. That feature allows companies to receive feedback from their clients and to react to that in a timely manner - improving client service or even changing new product designs before rolling them out.

It is difficult to define "the client" for the pharmaceutical industry (in order to keep it simple I limit my case to prescription drugs only and leave the OTC sector out). The patient purchases a drug prescribed by his doctor and gets it a the pharmacy that in turn receives it from the wholesaler. Within the hospital environment doctors do have drugs at their disposal that hospitals have purchased most of the time directly from the manufacturer (sometimes through wholesalers). Although the patient is the final user of that drug, his purchase decision for was influenced by the doctors recommendation who is the one pushing the sales. To the pharmaceutical industry only wholesalers and hospitals are considered "clients". Doctors are considered "opinion leaders" who need to be educated and convinced by the advantages of a given product. And the patient does not appear in traditional communication media in most of the countries. The use of social media for those companies is a relatively new feature and serves mainly an education purpose rather than a sales push initiative.

The company I am talking about does not use any e-commerce activities since their business is still negotiated on a "face-to-face" basis. Once contracts between wholesalers and the manufacturer have been signed, replenishment is done automatically but the sales process as such is still executed via key account manager.
An interactive website for medical professionals only was set up in order mainly to share the latest outcomes of clinical research on new products and further development for existing products.
Recently the company has launched a public Facebook Test campaign only in the US in order to reach the patient community and engage patients in an active dialogue with the company and among each other. The main focus here is on product information/education for existing products. Patients get the opportunity to interact with each other and share experiences with the laboratory that will give useful insights on product usage, side effects, benefits etc. The outcome so far has been positive but limited to the US market (astrazeneca pharmaceuticals on Facebook). Direct advertisement on drugs to patients is still forbidden in most of the countries which makes the use of social media difficult for those companies.

The main difference between that educational/information campaign on drugs and the social media effort for Sameer and Vinay is that in the latter case there was a clear deadline that had to be respected in order to save two lifes. The pharmaceutical industry does not have a deadline but tries to fulfill a clear goal by collecting patient feedback in order to target doctors better and develop the right products. The ultimate goal is not to push sales but to influence "opinion leaders" over time. There is no interactive marketing and no empowerment is given to the followers of that campaign who are simply expected to share their view and experiences on a limited number of drugs. It still makes it a powerful tool for communication beyond the traditional medical/research world towards the end-customer. And I hope that other companies will follow that path.