About Those Cute Teddy Bears
I just read a post that leads off this way:
In January 2009, new voluntary pharmaceutical industry guidelines on marketing to physicians went into effect (David 2010), which emphasize disclosure and transparency regarding the relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical companies. They also require changes in how pharmaceutical companies market products to physicians.
In fairness, the post is about the use of social media by pharmaceutical companies, but it just so happens that I know a few doctors, and trust me, those “voluntary” guidelines are worthless. Bermuda golfing junkets, gifts, and flirty, hot reps remain the norm.
Oh, and what happens in Bermuda usually stays in Bermuda.
Interesting:
For example, a company that offers a “Brand Bodyguard” service monitors conversations about its clients on blogs, discussion boards and websites. The service also pro-actively creates positive content on the Web to edge out negative content. It is yet to be decided if this is an appropriate usage of social media by the pharmacetical industry.
I’ve been seeing this useragent in my server logs! I wondered who the heck it was. I doubt if it’s seeking or finding much about medical brands.