主页 > 医学文档 >
【medical-news】辉瑞涉足医生论坛网站合作
Big pharma finally found social networking. For those who aren’t familiar with Sermo, this is an online forum created two years ago by a Boston doc, whose site encourages other docs to swap insights as they chatter with each other online. Sermo profits by charging investment firms to view postings that could serve as tip-offs to side effects and other market-moving medical trends. In May, Sermo struck a deal with the American Medical Association, which can survey the collective wisdom of the site’s 30,000 members.
Now, Sermo is cutting a deal with Pfizer, and both companies insist they will create guidelines so that any info that is exchanged is on the up-and-up - full disclosure in any and all Pfizer postings. The terms weren’t disclosed, but for Sermo, this is a big step toward full-blown corporate participation. And for Pfizer, this is a new means to directly reach docs, who are increasingly tired of visits by sales reps and who, otherwise, receive most industry messages through CME events and medical journals. If this is proves to be a way to cut such expenses, count on other drugmakers striking deals, too.
“In my mind, I saw advertising and credibility as mutually exclusive to doctors,” Dan Palestrant, Sermo’s founder and chief executive, tells The Financial Times. “Pfizer is going to be working with (the) Sermo community to build guidelines on how the community wants to interact with it. Doctors can now say: ‘This is what we want’.” Ironically, this runs counter to the site’s original idea of giving docs a place to dish without eavesdropping by drugmakers.
â?#339;It creates a social discourse around the results, which is very different than a rather cold transmission through other media, where you donâ?#8482;t have that two-way communication,â?#157; Mike Berelowitz, a Pfizer sr vp who oversees the drugmaker’s docs, tells the Associated Press. â?#339;There will be great care taken to ensure the information we provide is transparent and clear, and done with full disclosure.”
Of course, this opens a Pandora’s box. There’s nothing to say Pfizer or any other drugmaker shouldn’t participate in online forums. But the venue could, conceivably, create myriad scenarios in which, say, off-label info is conveyed or trial results are somehow whispered prematurely or selectively. The FDA, if it pays attention, will likely have its bureaucratic hands full keeping track of countless postings to ensure such agreements don’t devolve into one large, ongoing and inappropriate marketing machine.
网友评论
Lydia
“”conceivably, create myriad scenarios in which, says, off-label info is conveyed or trial results are somehow whispered prematurely or selectively.”"
Already this scenario is in place with patient groups who chat through listservs. The patients may discuss clinical trial results in highly active/competive clinical research areas, or the group itself my collect medical information or anecdotal clinical trial results from its members. There are interesting possibilities regarding how the patient groups may use or where they might distribute such information. No wonder companies have a lot of interests in these groups, including subsidizing them with “educational grant” money.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:49 am Sarah
What a ripoff to me and to the AMA. I joined Sermo following AMA’s endorsement a few months ago… on the basis that “pharma would be kept out”.
Clearly this deal with Pfizer was already in the works - despite effusive words to the contrary. I won’t be using Sermo again, and will be much more skeptical of an AMA endorsement in future. I feel like I’ve just been had in an elaborate internet bait and switch.
October 15th, 2007 at 9:24 am Janet
The only criteria for participation in Sermo is that you are a physician. Physicians who work for pharmaceutical firms were not excluded. Just because a corporate logo does not appear does not mean it is free from pharma influence.
Given that Sermo paying clients (ie. pharma companies, investment firms, etc.) can post questions (and have their MD employeess or their KOLs answer them), it seems like a key opportunity for off-label promotion even prior to the Pfizer arrangement.
From their FAQ: “There’s obviously lots of utility for Sermo in being a place where physicians can share info about “off-label” uses of drugsâ?brvbar;”
Response: “Posting information to Sermo on off-label uses does not necessarily expose a posting physician to liability. The Sermo forum is provided to allow the free exchange of scientific information. However, physicians posting to the Sermo forum should disclose any bias or financial conflicts of interest to allow physicians utilizing the information to be allowed to make fully informed medical decisions as to any proposed “off-label” use of medication. The full disclosure of all biases or conflicts will assure that doctors proscribing “off-label” treatments are exercising their independent informed medical judgment.”
阅读本文的人还阅读：
作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-06-11 17:30
医学,生命科学网