Wyeth's attempt at Web 2.0 results in Web 1.5

Jul/04/2007 01:29 Filed in: Current DTC
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Chances are, if your taking an antidepressant medication, that you want it kept in confidence. You probably don't want to divulge personal information to get help and resources yet Wyeth is doing exactly that with their newest campaign for Effexor. The website has some great tools but in order to use it you have to register and rather than pulling information Wyeth will send you information in the mail. What is wrong with this campaign is the assumption that families who share computers in a household can guard their health history from others who use the same computer.



According to a recent report from Pew Internet, 80% of health seekers say it is important to them that they can get information anonymously. For the most part, users have not shared personal information at health Web sites: only 21% have provided their e-mail address; only 17% have provided their name or other identifying information; and only 9% have participated in an online support group about a health condition. (Note that 54% of all Internet users have shared personal information at other kinds of Web sites.) An overwhelming majority of Internet users who seek health information online are worried that others will find out about their activities: 89% of “health seekers” are worried that Internet companies might sell or give away information, and 85% fear that insurance companies might change their coverage after finding out what online information they accessed.

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I am aware that this is especially true for people who suffer from depression from my days on the Prozac brand team. All the information we had on depression and the medication could be accessed from the website without the need for registration on the website. Effexor has taken a great first step with a "Dialogues" website but it requires people to register to use the tools and that is a barrier that a lot of people may not be willing to cross. They even have nurses on staff to support this program but with caller ID many people maybe afraid to call someone to discuss their depression.


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Resources like these should be open to anyone who needs help without requiring registration. If you truly want to help patients then why would you hide this information behind a user name and password. Why not put it out there so anyone can access the information, especially caregivers who feel that one of their family members may be suffering from depression. It's a nice start but again the power of the Web is to bring people together to exchange information and learn from each others experiences. People trust other people rather than employees of big pharma and if we truly care about patients then we should not require them to give us anything in return except a chance to show them that we care. That is the dialogue that people are looking for in an era of corporate mistrust.

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