ABPI to help pharma with digital communications
pharmafile | May 4, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications | ABPI, Code breach, PMCPA, Shire, digital, pharma
The ABPI has set up a new group to help pharma with its online communications.
The UK industry body said that engaging digitally with stakeholders presents “significant and often mutually beneficial opportunities”, but warns that communicating online can be challenging for the industry.
This is because pharma is working in a highly regulated environment, and must be careful over what it says to patients and doctors online.
This is a key issue for pharma, and some firms have already fallen foul of the ABPI’s Code of Conduct when communicating online.
Recent examples include the PMCPA’s criticism of Shire’s Vpriv website after it was found to be making false claims about its drug.
Last year, Pharmafocus revealed that Bayer had published two tweets promoting several prescription medicines, and was found in breach of the Code, leading to questions over the industry’s handle on social media.
But the ABPI said that despite these problems it supports the “appropriate and strategic use of digital communications”, and now wants to help its members steer clear of these mistakes in the future.
The ABPI also said its members would like to build on their existing knowledge of digital communications, and have a resource that highlights its positives.
To this end, it established the ‘Digital Communications Working Group’ in October last year, and is now having further discussions on how to take this forward.
The Group is made up of representatives from the ABPI and its members, PMCPA, and healthcare communications agencies.
An ABPI spokesman said that the group is “still very much at the early discussions stage”, and is consulting with the ABPI’s corporate affairs network on key issues.
At the last corporate affairs network meeting, member companies said that providing a range of key dos and don’ts would be helpful, and that it would also be useful to see any case studies of good practice examples.
Future meetings will include finding out what things member companies are still unclear about in the digital world, and it is also looking more generally at anything else its members might find useful to help it communicate effectively – and within the regulations – online.
Ben Adams is the reporter for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and manages the DigiBlog site. He can be contacted via: email or Twitter.
Related Content
LGC Group opens $100M Organic Chemistry Synthesis Centre of Excellence
LGC Group, a life sciences company, has opened its new Organic Chemistry Synthesis Centre of …
Johnson & Johnson announces successful results from trial for myeloma treatment
Global healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson, announced that analysis of its Darzalex (daratumumab) therapy showed …
Bend Bioscience adds commercial spray drying facility to Georgia site
Bend Bioscience has announced the addition of a commercial-scale spray dryer and a Gerteis dry …
