In what has become a disturbing trend, pharma companies announced more than a thousand layoffs in the past two weeks.

Schering-Plough will axe 500 positions from its New Jersey headquarters.

Abbott is laying off 83 people in Parsippany, New Jersey

Pfizer announced that it would be eliminating 275 posts at its Michigan manufacturing plant, following through with its plan to close its Michigan research site.

The most recent changes came from Boehringer Ingelheim, which told Pharmalot on Monday that it would reassign 200 sales positions in its neurology division.

A BI spokesperson told the pharma blog, "We continually evaluate our staffing in response to the highly competitive marketplace and communicate directly to our employees as decisions are made."

Add these woes to the recent layoff announcements by Sanofi Aventis and the consolidation of Ortho Biotech and Centocor and the outlook starts looking bleak.

"I think the pharmaceutical industry is very much connected to the economy in general," said Julie Kampf, president of JBK Associates. "Drug use has gone down and companies are losing rights to drugs and their pipelines are getting tight?that coupled with the economy is a very telling sign."

Kampf noted that more opportunities should arise, as is the cyclical nature of the industry. "There is going to be a trend towards more start-ups, more mid-size companies and I think there will be other kinds of companies popping up with other indications for drugs and delivery systems, and our industry is depending on that."

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Pfizer, Schering, Abbott, and Boehringer announced that they will be shifting and slashing staff at both sales and manufacturing levels. While much smaller in scope than earlier cuts, the bloodletting doesn?t seem to be over.

More Cuts Across the Board

A ubiquitous element of pharmaceutical marketing is scheduled to vanish next January 1, as the revised marketing code of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America goes into effect. Gone will be the non-educational freebies—the pens, pads, mugs, toys, and miscellaneous tchotchkes?that pharma companies distribute by the carload.

(Just how much pharma junk are we talking about? In January, one healthcare system in Duluth, MN, banned promotional knickknacks from its facilities altogether—and promptly collected 18,700 individual items.)

The new code also prohibits company sales reps from providing restaurant meals to healthcare professionals, but still allows them to provide light fare in physicians' offices during informational presentations. In addition, the newly revised code requires companies to train reps on applicable laws and regulations, and requires a CEO or chief compliance officer to certify in writing that procedures are in place.

Tchotchkes may not be the most pressing issue in pharma marketing, as recent attacks on ghostwriting of medical articles and direct-to-consumer advertising prove. But promotional objects have been a magnet for criticism, with several organizations, including the Association of American Medical Colleges, moving to ban them in recent months. 

"It has the look of an unprofessional relationship," said Billy Tauzin, president and chief executive officer of PhRMA, during a press conference on the revised code. "Removing that look is important." 

"We have already seen the pharmaceutical industry begin to shift from overtly promotional activities to more educationally focused activities, and I believe the revisions to the PhRMA code will compel them to continue moving in that direction," said Tricia Glover, chief compliance officer for inVentiv Health. 

How effective will these changes be? Glover believes they will enhance industry standards for marketing practices in the same way the 2002 PhRMA code helped established the initial standards and principles. "Not only is the adoption of the code endorsed and recommended by the OIG, the industry is also under a growing level of scrutiny and pressure from the public to uphold higher ethical standards," she said. "Companies choosing to not follow the code would be putting their reputations at stake."

Kim Levy, vice president of strategic services at MicroMass Communications thinks the revised code is just a distraction. "Pens and pads do not build relationships. Great marketing requires dialogue," said Levy. "The fact that we as an industry have become reactive enough to worry about the propriety of a pen rather than focusing on building constructive relationships with health care professionals to improve patient care is disturbing."

With January right around the corner, there's not much time for pharma to put new procedures in place, and decide what to do with trinkets deemed inappropriate for sharing.

"I think it's going to take some time before everyone is up to speed on this new compliance ruling," said Nancy Beesley, executive vice president of HC&B Healthcare Communications. "The fact is that it's hard for large companies with disparate sales forces to police on compliance. That said, I think that pharmaceutical companies are held to a much higher standard than almost any other industry, and while they may not like it, they will do what's right."

The new Phrma marketing code bans pens and pads and other non-educational gifts. It bans dinners with docs (but not the lunch-and-learn). And it requires compliance. Are we safer yet?

PhRMA Says No to Tchotchkes

Pharma took a small but significant step toward making use of online social networking sites last week, as Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Pediatrics launched an unbranded group called "

" on the popular social networking site Facebook, in an effort to connect with mothers of children with ADHD.

The group is not product-specific, nor are there any advertisements for the company's ADHD drug Concerta (methylphenidate). McNeil's sole presence on the site is a corporate banner ad below the fold that a spokesperson said was included for the purpose of complete transparency.

"We wanted to look at a new way to provide information about ADHD to caregivers," said Tricia Geoghegan, a spokesperson for McNeil Pediatrics. "We looked at the growing demographic of mothers—32 million today—that are going online for healthcare information, and decided that it would be interesting to provide a resource in the Facebook landscape."

McNeil purposely chose to sponsor and facilitate the Facebook group instead of establishing its own corporate sub-site to establish a "for caregivers by caregivers" environment that it knew people were going to for information.


It's a big deal that Ortho is working on Facebook; experts point out that the company is not yet making use of the medium's capabilities for creating two-way conversations. The page currently hosts a list of external groups, links to podcasts, and information about the group contributors, plus articles about ADHD.

At press time, for example, the site's lead article was a letter to parents from pediatrician Patricia Quinn listing general information about the disorder and different behavioral techniques parents can use to work with their children. The site does not currently offer a comment feature or any way for outside parties to communicate with Quinn or the other group contributors.

"Ortho-McNeil's Facebook effort is on par with what we're seeing in the industry in terms of not enabling a two-way dialogue," explained Ignite Healthcare founder Fabio Gratton. "But it demonstrates a real understanding and commitment to this space. The next step would be to start actively listening and responding to discussion topics?and become a true participant in the dialogue."

According to Fard Johnmar, founder of Envisions Solutions, what Ortho-McNeil has done with its Facebook page is "seeding"—defined as mobilizing or creating online communities around certain issues, disease states, causes, or health transactions.

"Pharmaceutical companies are not using social technologies in a big way, as far as having conversations directly with people using the technologies, but what Johnson & Johnson has done is develop spaces for people to come together," Johnmar told 

. "Those are very high-level engagement-type activities."

While companies like Johnson & Johnson are experimenting with blogs and YouTube, most pharma companies have steered clear of comment forums, and for the most part have been relegated to one-way conversations online. Drug marketers are holding steady until FDA provides some form of guidance about what pharma can and cannot do online.

Gratton, however, thinks change is coming. "I am certain that within the next 6-12 months we will begin to see more and more of that—especially as companies begin to take the e-channel seriously and formulate corporate POVs on how to behave."

The Johnson & Johnson subsidiary launched an unbranded support group page on social networking site Facebook giving moms of kids with ADHD a place to learn, but not a place to converse.

Pharmaceutical Executive-07-16-2008

More Cuts Across the Board

PhRMA Says No to Tchotchkes

Ortho-McNeil Talks ADHD On Facebook