Pharma Companies Advised To Build Buzz Before FDA Approval
- by Shankar Gupta , May 3, 2006
"The therapies with pre-approval buzz experienced an enormous increase in discussion among relevant online communities versus those that had little or no pre-approval buzz," wrote study author Lydia Worthington, Nielsen BuzzMetric's managing director of health care. "This suggests the value of a pharma brand's investment in even a small amount of pre-launch buzz."
The report advocates that companies marketing new drug treatments can stimulate conversations among potential customers by creating a small amount of pre-FDA approval buzz. "The therapies with pre-approval buzz experience an enormous increase in discussion," Worthington wrote. "If a brand were to invest in a preliminary buzz campaign, even a small amount of pre-launch buzz in relevant online communities would lead to massive discussion following the product's launch." The report doesn't offer any practical suggestions for how pharmaceutical companies can go about promoting treatments that haven't been legally cleared for release.
For the study, Nielsen BuzzMetrics compared discussions at online communities about four drugs--cancer treatments Abraxane and Tarceva, diabetes drug Byetta, and multiple sclerosis treatment Tysbari. Of the four, Abraxane and Byetta had lower levels of pre-approval buzz, and after approval, did not receive as much attention from the online health care community as did Tarceva and Tysbari.
During the six months before the approval of diabetes treatment Byetta, less than 1 percent of the 10,000 members of the online diabetes community that BuzzMetrics monitored discussed the drug. In the four months after approval, that figure increased to 4 percent. Breast cancer treatment Abraxane showed a similar pattern, with a negligible number talking about the drug pre-approval, and only 2 percent of the 6,760 online breast cancer community in the four months after approval.
But lung cancer drug Tarceva showed a marked contrast. Two percent of the 2,515-member online community that BuzzMetrics monitored discussed the drug in the six months before approval, and the discussion shot up to 12 percent in the first two months of release. Likewise with Tysbari, about 4 percent of the 13,486 members of the online multiple sclerosis community discussed the drug in the six months prior to FDA approval; by one month before approval that figure rose to 15 percent. Three months after the drug's approval, it hit 20 percent of online discussions.
