Digital Pharma: Pfizer socialises pain campaign
pharmafile | October 5, 2010 | News story | Medical Communications | Digital Pharma blog, Facebook, Flickr, Pfizer, Twitter, social media
Pfizer is campaigning for better care for people suffering from chronic pain and has turned to social media to galvanise support for its cause.
The company is running an online petition in support of a Bill of Rights it has proposed for people suffering from chronic pain and to help win over potential signatories has launched presences on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
The initiatives form a Web 2.0 makeover for ‘Can You Feel My Pain?’ the European health awareness campaign Pfizer first launched a few years ago.
Unusually there is no stand-alone .com (or equivalent) campaign website, with Pfizer instead using three Facebook pages, in English, German and Dutch language versions.
But, despite being a European campaign with non-English materials, Pfizer says all three Facebook pages have been prepared “to comply with UK law”.
The company has locked down commenting aspects on the pages, offering visitors the chance to email their “pain story” to the company but not post it directly onto a Facebook Wall.
User-generated comments on
User generated comments are a mainstay of social media but pharma has found them a tricky area to tackle. There are few examples of European companies allowing them due to the restrictions on promoting medicines to the general public.
So it is interesting that Pfizer’s online petition and a Can You Feel My Pain? group on photo-sharing site Flickr do to allow them.
Pfizer notes it is “unable to moderate conversations and comments which may be posted via your Flickr profile, or associated with one of your photos which you wish to add to this group”.
Should “comments or conversation” on the Can You Feel My Pain? Flickr group pool contravene “legal or regulatory requirements (particularly with regard to promotion of, or specific reference to, any prescription-only medicines), we will remove the image and associated comment or conversation”, Pfizer states.
Pfizer’s use of Flickr is novel for a pharma firm and the company is looking for photos that illustrate “what your pain is like on a good day and what your pain is like on a bad day”.
The remaining strand in the social media makeover for the campaign is Twitter accounts, which like the Facebook pages also have English, German and Dutch versions.
Partnering with patient groups
The company has also seeded the content to patients groups it is working with, such as Chronic Pain Ireland and Action On Pain.
In total Pfizer worked with nine patient advocacy groups or citizen organisations and says each is working on local language materials to support the campaign.
The online drive is being supported by a series of off-line road shows that in the UK see the pharma company partner with local NHS bodies.
This will see Action on Pain, the local NHS and Pfizer appear at shopping centres across the UK in September and October to offer people affected by chronic pain on-site advice sessions with local doctors. Similar roadshows were held in the UK during 2009.
Bill of Rights
Pfizer’s Bill of Rights for people affected by chronic pain focus on five areas:
• Right to be understood as a condition by the public and employers
• Right of access to accurate and improved information about their chronic pain
• Right to have access to healthcare professionals who have been adequately trained and fully understand chronic pain; specifically how to diagnose and appropriately manage the condition to limit it worsening
• Right to early intervention and optimal pain management from access to healthcare professionals who can help identify the best possible pain management and support for each patient at the earliest possible stage
• Right of pain relief as a fundamental human right
One in five adults in Europe are living with chronic pain, which Pfizer describes as pain that lasts for more than three months and can be unbearable, making everyday activities difficult and in some cases, impossible.
The company says chronic pain is often misunderstood, misdiagnosed and inappropriately managed, leading many people to suffer in silence.
Pain medications are one of six key ‘invest to win’ therapy areas Pfizer announced in its January R&D streamlining process.
The company already markets Lyrica for neuropathic pain, and last year the drug was its second biggest seller, earning sales of $2.8 billion.
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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