Digital Pharma: GSK takes drug information to Europe
pharmafile | September 21, 2010 | News story | Medical Communications | Digital Pharma blog, GlaxoSmithKline, digital patients
European patients can now get information on GlaxoSmithKline’s prescription medicines direct from the company through its expanded health.gsk.com website.
The site was first launched last year as a UK-only pilot and has now been opened up to patients throughout the European Union, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
GSK says it wants the site to become a trusted source of information about its medicines.
A company spokesperson told Digital Pharma: “There is a vast amount of information on the internet and we believe GSK is best placed to provide high quality, up-to-date information on its medicines to patients and their carers.
“The website for members of the public aims to provide information about GSK’s European products, including information on side effects and how to take the medicine. The information is for patients and their carers to support them to take the medicine.”
It is the only such information site from pharma currently available to European patients, and the UK regulations for the area – generally, and erroneously, seen as preventing such initiatives – will be one of the topics at InPharm’s digital marketing webcast tomorrow.
InPharm’s Making Digital Markeitng Work For UK Pharma webcast will also include presentations on pharma company Janssen’s social media and digital initiatives and the UK’s digital media landscape.
GSK’s expanded patient information site
GSK’s website includes information on its brands that have been through the centralised European approval process, to ensure information will be appropriate across the region, and it has a separate section for healthcare professionals to refer to.
To coincide with the site’s geographical expansion, which occurred over the summer, its content and features have also grown, adding news about the company’s products and social media sharing tools.
The sharing function is through an AddThis button, similar to the one you can see in the left column of this page. It automatically generates text containing just the title of the page, making it less likely GSK will suffer the kind of regulatory censure that befall Novartis in US this August.
GSK’s health.gsk.com site is only available in English, but the company is in the process of developing country-specific versions in local languages for most European countries.
• InPharm’s Making Digital Marketing Work For UK Pharma webcast will be broadcast live on Wednesday 22 September at 12:30pm, and then archived for later viewing (Register here)
Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
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