QDIS Blog

Google Trends is an interesting tools to see trends in what people are searching for on Google. I decided to do a little investigation on some items of interest to the drug industry.

1. Vioxx: I looked at the trends for “Vioxx”and the results spike at the end of Sept 2004 when Merck announced they were withdrawing the drug from the market. It’s been relatively flat since.

2. If you limit the results to just the US, it is interesting that the number one city searching for Vioxx was Barnwell, SC (population 24,000), So I was curious as to why such a small town in SC would be by far and away the largest searcher for the term Vioxx. A quick search for “vioxx” and Barnwell yields the answer; one of the law firms involved in the Vioxx case in NJ was Weitz & Luxenberg and they have offices in Barnwell, SC. They also have offices in Mannford, OH.

3. Search for “Plan B” has also seen a trend up. Unfortunately, Google trends doesn’t list any news items for this term.

4. A Search for “FDA” shows that there are more than twice as many searches for this term in India than in the US. This isn’t surprising since India is a growing market for pharmaceutical products, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and other related services.

If we limit it to the US, then Rockville, MD is the number one city, not surprising since that’s where the FDA headquarters are located.

I’m sure there may be even more interesting results after I’ve had time to play with it more. Also, keep in mind that uncommon search terms don’t give good results.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Trends

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