Not too long ago, digital pharma guru and blogger Jonathan Richman wrote an inspiring post entitled ‘Ten Digital Marketing Ideas Pharma Companies Will Never Try (But Should)’. Number two in his list was to ‘get rid of your brand website’, based on the fact they are not widely visited by patients and provide little benefit, compared to syndicating content to third party sites. While this vision is not all there (yet), it seems to be happening step by step…
GSK’s new product information site designed specifically for UK patients at http://public.gsk.co.uk/ is a great example of a step in the right direction, and follows in the footsteps of AstraZeneca’s www.simply4patients.co.uk (as discussed in Dominic Tyer’s Pharmafocus article).
Both sites provide patients with non-promotional, accurate and balanced information on the medicines they are taking that are produced by GSK/AZ respectively, therefore potentially replacing the dreaded www.yourdrugnamehere.com websites. The GSK product info site even links to the MHRA’s YellowCard site for reporting adverse events and most impressively, provides links to useful third party websites. This latter feature is really where things should be going, the knowledgeable company perspective that has been lacking until now, combined with an easy route to the oh so important independent third party views, providing a real benefit for patients – and preventing the late night patient surfing of inappropriate US DTC sites! Integration of content is exactly where the internet is at. In fact, it is the internet’s raison d’être. Yes, pharma has limits online. But shouldn’t we still aim to be a part of the wider dialogue and provide trusted, useful information for patients when it is appropriate?
Tags: AstraZeneca, digital pharma, dose of digital, GSK, http://public.gsk.co.uk, jonathan richman, pharma online, www.simply4patients.co.uk