Is responsibility an oxymoron for a drug company?

Sep/15/2008 09:32

Pfizer has launched a new website on medication safety -- unusual in an industry often criticized as using marketing practices that oversell drug benefits and downplay risks. The site called "Responsibility" has a lot of great features but will skeptical patients and consumers trust a website from a drug company on drug side effects? More importantly what will consumers think of this website? This is the key question as although the Website is named Responsibility it's consumers who control the message and the positioning today. Sure those who hate pharma will laugh at this effort but it's a great first step in an industry that has taken so much heat, a lot of it self-generated, over the last few years.

Pfizer plans to promote the site by working with medical and patient advocacy groups, as well as with online advertising on Web sites targeting medical professionals and patients. The detailed site includes sections written for patients and for health professionals, with plain-English explanations, engaging graphics and clips of video hosts discussing important points. It has a prominent link to information about how to report a drug side effect to Medwatch, the Food and Drug Administration reporting program.

responsbility full

In-depth sections include a timeline that covers steps taken to monitor a drug's safety from initial testing until well after it's on the market, and how the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies and health professionals work together and with patients to try to ensure safety. Another section gives some insight on weighing risks, showing how people tend to fear unlikely things, like being in an airplane crash, more than common risks such as heart disease.And a key fourth section details what patients should know, tell their doctor and ask about every time they are prescribed a medicine; how to decide whether its risks are acceptable, and how to interpret what's on a prescription bottle.Two doctors who are frequent industry critics called the site a good first step in communicating to the public the need to balance the risks and benefits of medicines.

"They've made a good-faith effort," said Dr. Steve Nissen, Cleveland Clinic's head of cardiology."Too long, the perspective presented to the public has been that drugs are some magic bullet, that they do something good for you but that there's no downside," Dr. Nissen said, adding he is pleased the site does not promote Pfizer products.

Dr. Harlan Krumholz, director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, said Pfizer is "trying to do the right thing" to help people put drug safety in perspective."The spirit of what they're doing is great," he said. "Whether this is the most effective way to assist patients to make the best decisions for themselves, time will tell."

One has to wonder why Pfizer would not have worked with other pharmaceutical companies to expand the reach of this message and promote it to a lot more patients and consumers in the US? Still it has been my experience that patients and consumers are very wary of ANY messages from drug companies. Recently when I conducted some research with people who use the Web for health information I heard a lot about the lack of credibility of information on product and company websites. "Do you think they are going to tell you the truth about problems with their drugs?" said one person and another said "You have to look at all the information there is just too much that they don't want you to know". Remember that Pfizer pulled the Chantix branded ads when there the brand received too much negative publicity.

The effort follows recent steps by Pfizer to address concerns about industry behavior, including changing its funding for doctors' continuing medical education programs to eliminate commercial aspects and supporting an industry trade group's updated policy limiting gifts from sales representatives to doctors. Still it's a great first step and an effort to connect with patients and consumers and for this we should thank Pfizer. However, to really make this website viable Pfizer, and the drug industry as a whole, need to be more transparent about data and respond faster to reported issues with products.