Archive for the ‘Social Media and Pharma’ Category

Pfizer sets tone with first Electronic Trial by Sjouke

There is a Dutch saying ‘When the first sheep crosses the gate…’.

Pharma-giant Pfizer definitely took a large step by crossing the line from the traditional ‘site-oriented’ trials to a full internet-based trial. Pfizer got approval from the FDA to ‘duplicate’ a 2007 study on a pill for overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) using the internet for both Patient recruitment and data-collection. (more…)

Role of Patient Organisations in Clinical Trials by Sjouke

Having mostly worked with clinical trials from Pharma’s perspective, it was enlightening to hear more on how Patient Organisations can impact clinical studies. Last week, I participated in one of the first international meetings on ‘The role of Patient Organisations in Clinical Trials’. (more…)

From Web 2.0, via Enterprise 2.0, to Pharma 2.0 by Jurjan

Just recently the Pharma industry is starting to use Social Media tools. Tools that the general web population discovered almost 10 years ago and the first large innovative enterprises adopted about 3-4 years ago. (more…)

Patient Recruitment in Clinical Trials: how general marketing techniques can help by Sjouke

Let’s face it, most clinical trials face the problem of actual patient accrual falling well below expected goals. And with the ever growing number of clinical trials (at any point in time, there are at least 40,000 trials active) and the increasing number of patient per clinical trial, this problem is not going to fade away easily. (more…)

Adverse Event (AE) reporting by Trial patients using Social Media by Sjouke

Having a Patient discuss an Adverse Event in a Forum is one of the major concerns (nightmare ?) within Bio-Pharmaceutical companies against using a Patient Forum. And of course, it is the Regulatory and Legal people which dictate this concern. Let’s try to place it in a context. We will do this in a 3-step process. (more…)

Power to the Patient by Sjouke

There cannot be any mistake in this, Social Media is causing ‘Power’ to move towards Customers, or Patients, as in this case. I recently read an article on the effect of Social Media and it indicated that whereas (only) 17% of people believe what a Company is saying about their product, a stunning 86% of people believe what another customer is saying about a product. (more…)

Social Media and Clinical Trial Patient Recruitment by Sjouke

Two years ago, nobody would have grasped that there would be any kind of link between ‘Social Media’ on one hand and ‘Clinical Trial Recruitment’ on the other hand. But the landscape has changed. (more…)

New App for iPad in Oncology Trials by Sjouke

With only a couple of months since the initial release of the iPad, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MedTrust Online recently announced their plans for the development of CancerTrials App. The App will allow oncologists to search information on new oncology trials and experimental therapies and share the information with their patients. (more…)