tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8683569349355130322008-07-22T14:29:14.613-05:00John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comBlogger270125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-78456749263398288932008-07-22T06:42:00.010-05:002008-07-22T07:40:01.849-05:00

"Like a bad penny, I have opened a new drug news blog, titled 'Jim Edwards’ NRx.'" That's how Jim's email announcement, which all you bloggers out there have probably received, starts out. You can find Jim's new blog at http://jimedwardsnrx.wordpress.com/ It seems that Jim is simultaneously accepting freelance money from Brandweek--a company he used to work full-time for blogging--and yet

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-60619368364301308942008-07-15T08:52:00.005-05:002008-07-15T09:07:28.140-05:00

First I find that PharmaGiles is deceased (see "Wha Happened to PharmaGiles?") and now Pharma Fraud access is "by invitation only" and I haven't been invited! Of course, I'm a conspiracy nut, so right away I sense that these two developments are NOT isolated and may be part of an effort by employers of these bloggers to reign their employees who speak out against the pharmaceutical industry via

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-49983799631514334742008-07-14T18:28:00.002-05:002008-07-14T18:36:08.421-05:00

Have you tried linking to Pharma Giles blog at http://pharmagiles.blogspot.com/ lately? I get a "Pharma Giles (deceased)" message. Anybody know what's going on?

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-54724022293319693162008-07-08T05:48:00.004-05:002008-07-08T07:01:35.475-05:00

I am always searching the Pharma Blogosphere for comments and opinions I can quote in the articles I write for Pharma Marketing News. Sometimes, bloggers send me their comments directly. That's how I learned about The Patient Centric Healthcare Blog written by George Van Antwerp. He sent me his comments on why many pharmaceutical marketers ignore ROI and rely upon anecdotal evidence: They

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-89550695104616273122008-06-30T13:33:00.012-05:002008-07-01T12:44:54.378-05:00

Did you miss me when I was away in London? Well, I missed you! Anyway, here are a few photos. First, here I am riding the "London Eye." No, not the beefy guy with tattoos on his arm! The other beefy guy, sitting down and staring directly into the camera. Those other dodos in the gondola with me didn't have a clue where the camera was located! I had a nice visit with the folks at eyeforpharma,

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-9616610029410078422008-06-27T12:14:00.004-05:002008-06-27T12:39:50.139-05:00

While I was away in London this week, Richard Myer over at World of DTC Marketing sent me a copy of an email message he received from a reader of his blog who complained the that recent Evista TV ad, which shows menopausal women standing around wearing only towels, was "extremely offensive:" I have been searching for who I should contact about the ad for Evista. I have seen it several times and

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-86073374972014878772008-06-20T10:13:00.005-05:002008-06-27T09:25:03.104-05:00

I'll be in London next week where I will be giving the keynote presentation at the Measuring Marketing ROI in Pharma conference being held at the Meridien on Piccadilly Street. While there, I plan to meet up with a few people at various places around London -- see the Google Map I created to see the places I plan to visit. Hey, Insider (aka Jack Friday, PharmaGossip Guy)! How about meeting me

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-86909138841744697722008-06-02T05:35:00.004-05:002008-06-02T06:13:32.419-05:00

Back in February, 2007, when I started Pharma BlogosphereTM -- a blog about blogging about the pharmaceutical industry -- it was the first ever "pharma meta blog." At the time, several bloggers questioned the wisdom of a blog about blogs. Today, however, there are at least 3 "blogs" in this category: this blog, Christine Truelove's "Pharma Blogs: Week in Review", and now Bob Ehrlich's Blog on

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-69910628340883939662008-04-21T15:00:00.005-05:002008-04-22T09:25:02.020-05:00

Just kidding! I'm just tired of all the phone calls from the Barack campaign here in PA! I thought after I told them I would be voting for Hilary that they'd stop calling, but noooo! That was like putting a sign on may back saying "kick me!" This is just my method of payback! After collecting 250 votes, my little survey of readers regarding the pharma industry recession is not so little anymore!

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-63784747631891484992008-04-07T14:02:00.000-05:002008-04-07T14:03:53.635-05:00

Or, at least, Senator Grassley would be calling for an investigation right about now. The New York Times reports on the untimely death of two bloggers in a recent article: "To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-79301510111639623722008-04-03T15:35:00.007-05:002008-04-03T16:15:26.788-05:00

There's a brouhaha going around the Pharma BlogosphereTM about an anti-GSK YouTube video posted by Bob Fiddaman, a UK blogger. Several denizens of the Sphere have taken up the cause as a "free speech" issue: Glaxo, An Angry Blogger And Free Speech and this list provided by PharmaGossip (find the links here): Does GSK Love Bad Publicity? (Clin Psych Blog)Video sets GlaxoSmithKline Hounds to

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-25404373965099777942008-04-01T15:45:00.005-05:002008-04-02T05:34:13.443-05:00

What's the difference between an award-winning journalist blogger and a plain old blogger? The journalist blogger can call the CEO of Sepracor and get a quote, the plain old blogger has to rely on his wits and talk to the non-C suite employees to get his information. Yesterday, Ed Silverman and I were speakers at an industry conference where we learned something about the Lunesta ad campaign

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-40198860476125093822008-03-27T06:25:00.006-05:002008-03-28T15:11:48.911-05:00

I recently discovered Twitter -- a free social networking and micro-blogging service -- and admit that "I'm All a Twitter About Twitter." Twitter ... allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-23132351275124142322008-03-21T12:08:00.004-05:002008-03-21T12:22:43.515-05:00

Any one who knows me, knows that I have been championing the notion of pharmaceutical company employee blogging for a long time (see, for example, "A Primer on Pharma Employee Blogging") and more recently I have challenged Centocor to give employees a voice on their CNTO411 Blog (see "Centocor: Let Thy Employees Speak!"). Lo and Behold! Today marks the first employee profile on a drug company's

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-20442064904069858202008-03-17T10:05:00.006-05:002008-03-17T10:34:49.454-05:00

Several bloggers have picked up on the analysis by IMS, which indicated that Drug sales in the U.S. grew at their slowest pace since 1961 (see "Drug Sales in U.S. Grow at Slower Pace"). This, IMS says, is due to "cheaper copies of top-selling medicines [flooding] the market and U.S. regulators [approving] fewer new products." Meanwhile, there seems to be a question if generic drugs are as good

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-32837966372214656522008-03-12T09:14:00.004-05:002008-03-12T09:59:35.794-05:00

Pharmaceutical Exceutive Magazine's PharmExec Direct Marketing Edition -- not quite a blog, but close enough -- as well as other blogs in the Pharma BlogosphereTM, have picked up on the CNTO411 story (see "Centocor Enters Blogosphere"). I was quoted in the article: "As far as blogs go, CNTO411 is a small step for a blog, maybe a giant leap for pharma," Pharma Marketing Blog writer John Mack

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-8968285351065247812008-03-11T10:06:00.003-05:002008-03-11T10:16:27.680-05:00

Finally, a conservative newspaper has joined the Pharma BlogosphereTM! It's Daily Diagnosis from the New York Daily News. Here's the welcoming blog post: If death is the great equalizer, good health is the ultimate privilege. And while we can’t change our DNA, scientists every day are giving us new ways of maximizing what we’re born with. The Daily Diagnosis will offer perspective and context

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-75516291390884086132008-03-07T15:47:00.004-05:002008-03-07T15:56:24.513-05:00

I just noticed that when I try to access Peter Rosts' Question Authority Blog by typing in http://peterrost.blogspot.com/, my clickstream gets hijacked so that I end up on the Pfizer Web site. Very strange!

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-89559122339458664822008-03-04T16:54:00.003-05:002008-03-05T09:44:57.674-05:00

I'm getting bored with pharmaceutical company corporate blogs! See my rant on Pharma Marketing Blog: "Centocor Blog - No Frying Pan and No Fire!" What's next from pharma, viz-a-viz Web 2.0 ventures such as blogs, podcasts, RSS, social networks, etc? C'mon. Make some predictions. I suppose we'll have to wait another 6 months or a year before a pharmaceutical company launches another me-too

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-18106134581285225212008-03-04T11:11:00.004-05:002008-03-04T11:34:59.197-05:00

Michael Parks, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Centocor, Inc. and the brains behind CNTO411 (see "CNTO411: A New Pharmaceutical Company Blog") plans to be a guest on today's Pharma Marketing Talk podcast about Centocor's new blog. After Jack Friday threw down the gauntlet by launching his counter-blog CentocorGossip (see "CentocorGossip: An 'Unofficial' Centocor Blog!") Michael

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-12766256305850815522008-03-02T07:48:00.009-05:002008-03-02T08:37:06.166-05:00

Just when Centocor thought it successfully maneuvered into the Pharma BlogosphereTM by launching the CNTO411 blog (see "CNTO411: Centocor's Groundbreaking Blog"), we learn that PharmaGossip's Insider has set up a shadowy blog on the Blogger server called "CentocorGossip (ie, cnto411.blogspot.com)."[Whoops! Looks like Centocor forgot to register "cnto411.blogspot.com". I also cannot find a

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-3085016853929838952008-03-01T07:20:00.012-05:002008-03-02T08:11:14.456-05:00

Centocor -- a J&J company that was the first to produce a feature length disease awareness documentary ("Innerstate") -- has just launched a new corporate blog that may break new ground in pharmaceutical company blogging. It's called "CNTO411". The brains and bloggers behind CNTO411 are Melissa Katz, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Centocor and her boss, Michael Parks, Vice

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-77906017464657680542008-02-29T13:52:00.002-05:002008-02-29T13:56:08.935-05:00

Peter Rost just announced on his Question Authority blog: "After having been started in April 2007, BrandweekNRX was taken off the air in December, and brought back for the months of January and February this year. Unfortunately, money is tight over at Brandweek, and advertising on Internet sites such a BrandweekNRX is hard to come by . . . so, for now, BrandweekNRX is closing down again.

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-81117029571250633152008-02-29T10:35:00.004-05:002008-02-29T10:48:01.569-05:00

A commenter to my previous post ("Dear Doctor Jarvik: Are You G**?") pointed out that Jarvik is married to Marilyn vos Savant (shown below on her non-exercise bike). She's a keeper and not an IDIOT SAVANT! I don't know if this proves if Jarvik is gay or not, but he's risen a notch higher on my esteem-o-meter! I found the following information about Marilyn over at marilynvossavant.com (she and

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-868356934935513032.post-25273708252263307382008-02-29T08:49:00.008-05:002008-02-29T09:10:16.065-05:00

[WARNING. THE FOLLOWING POST MAY CONTAIN POLITICALLY-INCORRECT INNUENDOS. IF THIS OFFENDS YOU, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST.] Are you gay? Forgive me for asking this doctor, but I have been getting a lot of flack over at Pharma Marketing Blog after I suggested you might be gay (see "Jarvik: A Modern DTC Tragedy"). Actually, I first suggested you were a "fop," which I guess is an old fashioned

John Mackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10211557578124130640noreply@blogger.com