Its 2018…Should Pharma still be scared of Digital?

Gary Monk January 16th 2018

Introduction• The biggest barrier to digital adoption in Pharma is

‘Regulatory, legal and health care compliance issues'

• How grounded in reality is this fear? When Pharma 'do digital' do things go wrong? And if so why?

• To answer the above I analyzed almost 80 breaches of the UK ABPI code of practice, adjudicated by the PMCPA over the last 2 years, identifying the type of breach and the ‘guilty’ marketing channel

Number of breaches11

2

3

2

8

22

During 2016 and 2017 39 Pharma companies breached the code.

Most companies had only one breach but there are a few ‘repeat offenders’ with one

company having seven

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Number of companies per volume of breaches

Email30%

Website30%

Online Journal13%

Online Advert13%

Ipad Detail3%

Social Media7%

Electronic Exhibition advert3%

Sales Management22%

Sales Force20%

Representative item2%

Printed Promo Materials20%

Print Magazine2%

Print Journal15%

Patient Leaflet2%

Letter4%

Meeting13%

Of all cases 61% were Non-Digital versus 39% Digital

Digital (39%) Non-Digital (61%)

60% of all digital cases were related to either Email or Website breaches

55% of all non-digital cases were related to the sales or in person meeting channels

Representative conduct3%

Promotion to the public5%

Promotion outside of licence3%

Poor Quality1%

No email permissions1%

Not correctly certified4%

Outdated Information 5%

Missing information5%

Misleading information 58%

High call rate targets5%

Excessive Hospitality4%

Disparaging competitor3%

Behaviour of 3rd party consultant3%

Regardless of channel, digital or non-digital the biggest issue was misleading information

58% of all cases were related to the provision of misleading information, when adding outdated

or not correctly certified information this number hits 72%

Other Reasons33%

Misleading information 67%

Misleading information is a major issue across digital and non-digital

There was no evidence in the case reports that the higher percentage of misleading information in ‘digital’ breaches is to do with the complexity of digital, e.g. less space, differing formats etc

Digital Non-Digital

Other Reasons48%

Misleading information 52%

All Other Channels97%

Social Media3%

Social Media breaches have almost unicorn status

Social media is one of the most feared digital channels yet there were minimal breaches related to it over the time period. These breaches were

not even due to active use, rather a 3rd party placing assets without permission on video sharing sites

Breaches related to social media

Non-Digital Breaches69%

Digital Breaches31%

The % of digital breaches almost doubled in 2017 vs 2016

This is interesting but probably not that relevant or statistically significant. Again the biggest issue Pharma face is not Digital versus Non-Digital but ensuring their internal processes and

culture lead to the right information being shared!

2016 2017

Non-Digital Breaches41%

Digital Breaches59%

Summary

• Digital channels are not the problem, it is Pharma internal processes and culture that lead to the dissemination of misinformation, regardless of the medium used.

Don’t be scared, say hello!

@garymonk

linkedin.com/in/garywmonk/