FDA phone number in drug ads?

Apr/18/2008 05:27 Filed in: Current DTC DTC Environment
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A proposal in Congress that drug ads contain a phone number that consumers can call to make complaints to the Food and Drug Administration is being floated around. Can you imagine the costs this would add to the FDA not to mention the headaches of formalizing a complaint protocol. There is a much easier way to collect this information by simply following a good customer CRM program on the Internet.



Product website are not only used when making health decisions but consistent research also indicates that a large percentage of people also go to product websites after they receive a prescription from their doctor. It actually would be quite beneficial to drug companies and patients if, on the website, there was an area where patients could register for product updates. If the label changes and new side effects are reported the drug company could send an eMail to all registered patients but more importantly by establishing communications with current patients they could collect a wealth of market research information and start down the path to reestablishing trust with its customers.


In order to implement a CRM program of course pharma would have to ensure that they provided value to patients. When starting any CRM program one o the key questions you have to ask is "what's in it for my customers to start a relationship with my company?"


One would have to wonder why pharma has not embraced this practice of database marketing but it requires a substantial investment up front and the development and evolution of a customer contact strategy. Of course pharma would not want to do anything that may take away from their precious TV ads. Current pharma CRM is poor at best with newsletters that are more promotional than providing real credible value to patients.


An 800 phone number would do little but overwhelm an agency that is struggling to define its role. I am sure that patients would use the phone number to complain about everything from slow pharmacies to drug pricing which of course is way beyond the FDA's scope. It's time for drug companies to be proactive and suggest ways to help patients get the information they need when they need it and this goes way beyond a push marketing outdated website that is updated once a quarter.
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