Election Resource for Pharma + Healthcare PR Pros

Blogger John Mack, who also publishes Pharma Marketing News, has been keeping track of information about the views of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama with respect to healthcare and other issues of importance to the pharmaceutical industry. He’s been posting this information on a special discussion forum devoted to the presidential campaign.

If you have a vested interest in pharmaceutical public relations, healthcare PR or health crisis management, check it out. You can subscribe to the forum and receive daily or weekly email updates.

Mack invites you to post your own stories, sources of information and opinions to the forum. “Just keep it relevant to the political issues of importance to the pharmaceutical industry,” he says.

You don’t have to register in order to post your opinions, thus preserving your anonymity.

Drug Companies Agree to New Rules on DTC Advertising

Pharma marketing consultants and health PR firms should be aware of a recently announced moratorium on new drug ads.

According to Ed Silverman, author of the Pharmalot blog, a number of leading drug manufacturers — including Merck, Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer — have agreed to a six-month moratorium on advertising new drugs.

The pharma companies said that the six-month moratorium formalized industry practice, which is to educate doctors before moving to consumer communications. The change came in response to a request from Michigan Democrats Bart Stupak and John Dingell, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who had originally requested a two-year voluntary waiting period on DTC.

The pharmaceutical leaders will also begin adhering to American Medical Association guidelines about using actors to portray physicians. At least one marketer, J&J, says it won’t use doctors in ads to discuss the benefits of a drug.