Sales & Marketing

New study finds that risks and side effects don't get their fair share of time in television advertising. The authors cry out for more educational information in DTC ads--but is it necessary if the ads aren't breaking the law?

We asked seven industry experts to talk about today's best (and worst) pharma icons

Welcome to the new employer's market for reps. The Hay Group's annual survey reports how, as the primary sales force contracts, so too does its pay.

GlaxoSmithKline locks up MediaCom as its only ad-buying/planning provider. The agency will handle GSK's massive ad spend, which last year hovered around $1.1 billion.

Drug manufacturer shakes things up with new Web site that functions as an open book into the world of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The company hopes that its transparent approach to design will be a lesson to pharma companies still fearful of online media.

There was a large minority of physicians who said they did, in fact, favor a DTC moratorium of some length. So the question is, why didn't it happen?

A physician-oriented search engine reveals its most-searched terms. Among the winners: breast and lung cancer, cortisol, and HbA1c/glycated hemoglobin. Nowhere to be seen: pharmaceutical products.

Top pharma brand experts discuss today's issues: safety, compliance, corporate branding, combatting generics, and more.

With ads on topics ranging from addiction to disease states, this year's Rx Club Award winners connect creativity with emotion

In this age of new media, social networking, blogs, and cyber-clutter, it's easy to forget the appeal of the real-of things that you can hold in your hand and engage with physically. But make no mistake, despite all of the high-tech tools available to us, advertising still relies on evoking an emotional response by tickling the human senses.

The impact of high-quality online training tools would be difficult and costly to replicate offline given the dynamic and interactive aspects offered

Lynn Upshaw posits that marketing with integrity is key to success in these skeptical times. To do so, a company has to live its brand. In his book, Upshaw tells you how.

The ability to review what people are saying about a brand has become a hot topic among pharmaceutical marketers. Managing a brand used to be fairly straightforward, until, of course, the advent of the Internet. Today, the challenge is enormous: blogs, podcasts, micro-blogging, instant messaging, Wikis....

The direct-to-consumer marketing campaign for havidol, a drug for dysphoric social attention consumption deficit anxiety disorder, is drawing lots of public reaction. (but neither the drug nor the disease is real.)

Choosing a name for a new pharmaceutical product used to be a pretty straightforward proposition. Twenty years ago, most drug names were descriptive or functional in nature; they relied on the indication, therapeutic category, or generic name for their creative direction.

Lack of trust is preventing pharma from doing what it does better than any other entity on the globe: research and develop new cures and treatments, says Billy Tauzin, president of PhRMA. What to do about it? Twelve top brandmeisters weigh in.

The hard work being done by the industry to prove its commitment to patients and better health is being hampered by its reputation of unreliability

With Exprience and A new means of measuring impact on patient behavior, branders have never been in a better position to make their strategies work

Sometimes looking back is a way to look forward

Build it and they will come. But how do you make them stay?

A win-win marketing strategy that illuminates, educates, and promotes at the same

New search engine gives consumers the ability to manage all their health needs from a central location--and offers pharma the opportunity to reach new patients through targeted search ads

These are challenging times for senior operations executives who support sales, marketing, and managed markets. The pipeline shortfall, drug-approval delays, and increasing regulatory complexity have squeezed budgets while raising revenue targets. The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) has caused some of the most far-reaching changes in the sales and marketing landscape, as government purchasing power creates both new opportunities and greater restrictions. In addition, traditional modes of selling have saturated the market, and the sales model the industry knows and loves is no longer so effective.

Physicians are using the Internet for much more than requesting an occasional journal article. But do they visit the brand.com sites? Yes, and at predictable times, according to ePharma Physician, a new study from Manhattan Research. Yet not all drug sites cater to docs' needs. What can pharma marketers learn from the sites that do get docs to log on? Pharm Exec spoke with Mark Bard, president of Manhattan Research, to find out.

For years, advertising agencies have been coaxing people into back rooms at malls to review ads in exchange for a couple of dollars or a lotto ticket. Although this method of gauging ad effectiveness is useful for gathering thoughts about whether an advertisement is liked or disliked by a reader, it doesn't convey the whole story to the ad agency. Marketers want to know things like: Did you read the copy first or look at the photo? Are you distracted by a particular color? How obvious is the risk information? Does this ad have stopping power? Plus, with the mall approach, agencies must factor in the reality that many focus group participants just give the answers marketers want to hear and collect their cash.

Very few drugs live forever. Barring remarkable scientific advances and radical market dynamics, most drugs hit old age-and sharply declining sales-several years before their patent expires. But some drugs go out with a bang, not a whimper.

You have to admit: Mark McClellan, MD, has quite a resumé. But after you've been the commissioner of FDA and the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), what comes next?

If you've been thinking of online video as a toy or, worse yet, as something that's going to happen at some point in the future, let me offer you a picture: Me, a target pharma customer, on the elliptical machine at the gym, watching, no, not CNN or Katie Couric, but "Nephrology Consult 101, Unusual Causes of Renal Failure" and "Internal Jugular Central Line Placement," a pair of free video podcasts I downloaded from the Yale School of Medicine.

Search engine giant says industry lags behind on e-marketing

From pamphlets to posters to informational magazines, doctors' offices are teeming with direct-to-patient promotions, and patients are starting to overlook them. To cut through the clutter, one healthcare-technology company created a device that replaces the common intake clipboard with a digital pad that collects patient information and responds with branded information.