QDIS Blog

Big Pharma and YouTube

by Ed Vawter @ 11:14 am. Filed under Pharma

I came across this article recently and found it thought provoking. Seems many drug industry critics are taking to YouTube to get their message out.

Big Pharma on YouTube - not a pretty picture | Trusted.MD Network:

The main video talked about in the article is one from a former Lilly sales rep who talks about what he was told to say in regard to side effects of the drug Zyprexia.

There is also a set of trailers for thr documentary “Big Bucks Big Pharma”.

Big Pharma Big Bucks pt.1
Big Pharma Big Bucks pt. 2
Big Bucks Big Pharma pt 3
Big Pharma Big Bucks 4
Big Pharma Big Bucks pt 5
Big Bucks Big Pharma 6
Big Bucks, Big Pharma Extra: Drug Costs and PR

A search of YouTube for “big pharma” comes up with 86 entries. While I didn’t watch them all, the vast majority are negative towards big pharma and all seem to get four to five stars (out of five possible)

Here is one of my favorties.

This parody of a drug commercials is humorous and well written. However, I think some people may not know the fact that it is required by law to list any and all these side effects.

I should note that I have spent my entire career of over 15 year in the pharmaceutical industry both a big pharma, at smaller companies, and biotechs. Big pharma has done a poor job of educating people about what they do and when they do come out fighting it tends to be defensive and in modes of communication that lead people to dislike them and their brand.

Another disturbing trend in my mind ids the development of vanity products for non-life threatening conditions such as wrinkles, erectile dysfunction, etc. while areas such as he development of new antibiotics is not pursued. There is good work going on in the are of anti-cancer drugs but the reason for that is the perceived lower bar to getting a drug for cancer approved.

Keep in mind pharmaceutical companies are a business and are there to make a profit. I don’t always agree with the industry’s approach I do think they serve a vital need within our society and provide great benefit to humankind. My other objection to some of the critics is they usually do not have an alternative plan that is feasible.

I think there is more wrong with the healthcare system than just the drug industry. We need to look at the whole system instead of just attacking what is an easy target.

Other Resources

big pharma - Google Video (146 entries)
Yahoo! Video search for big pharma (20 entries)
Video Search Results - big pharma - AOL Video (102 entries)
EveryZing - big pharma (162 entries)

Note many of these may be identical but it gives you an idea of the number of videos.

Technorati Tags: big pharma, YouTube