As many of you know I worked for or around big pharma for close to 10 years.  I don’t blog about it much, or often comment on prescription drug issues often just because I was an insider for so long (yes, I know too much).  One thing that has been bugging a lot of us who have worked within or around pharma is how they have been very slow to embrace social media.  Back in ‘96 I helped launch most of the Glaxo websites for products.  It was an extremely hard sell.  Man the battles we had with lawyers and other regulatory folks.  Man pretty heated at times.

There are some excellent reasons why pharma has shied away from social media.  Control of their message isn’t just about marketing, it’s the law.  There are things you can and cannot say.  There are things you must do if people say certain things (even a hint of an adverse reaction goes to surveillance).  So is it any wonder that pharma has been reluctant to step into the fray?  That, however might be changing…

Hi there. I am writing on behalf of Bayer Animal Health, the manufacturer of Advantage Multi. As the manufacturer of this product, we very much want to know about product reactions (preferably as the are occurring).
Source: » Flea Control for Cats Leashes to Litterboxes

That comment is from a post on my girlfriend Lorraine’s pet health blog.  The e-mail and contact information left on the post are legit (I have 100s of e-mail addresses from Bayer folks to double check against).  This is a huge step and one I congratulate Bayer for taking.  This means that pharma might just be waking up and dedicating resources to monitor the blogosphere for mentions of their product and doing something proactive about them.

Do I expect pharma blogs soon?  Not likely.  Even with my background and knowledge of blogging and pharma I would be hesitant to recommend a public blogging effort.  Now an internal blogging effort, around monitoring an surveillance, well that’s a horse of a different color.