How Pharma Can Effectively Combat Misinformation/Disinformation

In this Pharmaceutical Executive video interview, Ian Baer, Founder & CEO of Sooth, explores the growing distrust and uncertainty surrounding social media and its impact on the pharmaceutical industry. Key contributors to this distrust include the spread of misinformation, the rise of AI-generated content, and the politicization of social media platforms. The conversation highlights the challenges faced by pharma companies in building trust with patients in this environment, including the need to combat misinformation and navigate the complexities of social media platforms.

He emphasizes the importance of building partnerships with trusted voices, such as medical influencers and patient communities, to effectively communicate with patients. It also underscores the need for transparency and authenticity in pharma's social media presence, including acknowledging and addressing patient concerns and responding to negative feedback.

The conversation concludes with a discussion on the evolving role of social media in healthcare and the potential for private communities and personalized sharing to play a greater role in the future.

How can pharma companies effectively combat misinformation/disinformation and distrust?

Not with force. Not with being louder. Not with saying ‘We're the authority. We know better’, but actually with a much more cooperative spirit. If you know that the average person trusts friends, family, and influencers more than they trust you as an institution, partner with those people, give them the content.

84% of all social sharing happens through one-to-one sharing of links. Give the people who are out there, acting like authorities, the right information to share better information, more credible information, better produced information, people will share the content that most reflects on their own personal brand and authority. I would say don't treat the other voices as competition that needs to be squashed. Find some voices to partner with that can actually amplify it and give greater one-to-one credibility than then you have on your own as a pharma brand.