Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - (Page 8) Blogging: The Truth is Out There…Somewhere With the proliferation of blogs changing the way pharma news is reported and analysed, Peter Houston looks at which ones we can trust and which have their own agenda. L ast week in these pages, columnist Jacky Law picked up on the blog chatter around Pfizer’s acquisition agenda. Seven days later and the world was reporting what many of the Pharma bloggers already knew — Pfizer is buying Wyeth. So should we all be abandoning our traditional information sources and turning to the blogosphere for our business intelligence? Well that depends on what you are looking for. Deep at the heart of the Pfizer rumour-mill last week were the insider blogs, published by what Jacky calls, “former employees with time on their hands, insider knowledge about the company and nothing to lose by speaking their minds.” These guys are close to the action, or at least they used to be, and you’re likely to get the juiciest gossip from them. They are generally unbound by any of the journalistic niceties that bind the media mainstream and they tell it like it is, or at least like they think it is. What you don’t always get from the insiders is a balanced ”both-sides-of-the story” analysis: many bloggers have an agenda. Dr Peter Rost epitomises this with his one-man crusade against Big Pharma. Since his well publicized firing by Pfizer in 2005, the Swedish born whistleblower and would-be FDA commissioner has used both book and blog to challenge sharp commercial practice in the pharma sector. Other insider blogs, although perhaps less crusading, are often equally unforgiving when it comes to reporting on Big Pharma. The day after the Pfizer–Wyeth deal was announced, PharmaGossip led with the headline, ”Pfizer – Bextra: How to hide $2.3 billion.” The In the Pipeline blogger said simply that he hopes Pfizer can do a better job of this acquisition than it has with previous takeovers. Respected insider blogs, like Pharmalot before its much-lamented demise earlier this year, also manage to bring together people across the industry, from discovery to delivery, creating a conversation that readers can learn from and contribute to. Should we all be abandoning our traditional information sources and turning to the blogosphere for our business intelligence? In his ‘obituary’ for the Pharmalot blog, corporate blogger Marc Monseau at JNJ BTW said, “It is this kind of community — that shares, challenges and provides additional information and new perspectives — that makes blogs so compelling.” Corporate blogs like Johnson & Johnson’s sit at the opposite end of the spectrum from the insider blogs. These are all about pushing the party line, and for this reason alone, they rank at the bottom of the consumer trust scale. According to a recent report on corporate blogging from Forrester Research Inc.; only one in six consumers trust company blogs says the report. The Pharma blogging community itself doesn’t seem to think too much more of the Corporates. “‘Corporate Blog’ is as much an oxymoron as ‘Jumbo Shrimp’”, said John Mack at the head of an enthusiastic debate on the nature of corporate blogging on his Pharma Marketing blog earlier this month. Forrester advises would be corporate bloggers, “If your strategy is to create a blog about your company and its products, give it up. You won’t get many followers for that kind of self promotion.” This might be why blogs like GSK’s alliconnect — “A place to talk 10 ON THE MOVE The latest industry appointments and expansions 89,760 68,721 92,754 69,451 2 NEWS US and European biopharm salary survey 3 NEWS Boost for Norwegian biotech 4 FROM THE EDITOR Let the mergers begin http://www.pharmalot.com/ http://peterrost.blogspot.com/ http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/12/people-dont-tru.html http://blog.pharmexec.com/2009/01/26/pfizer-to-buy-wyeth-for-68-billion/ http://blog.pharmexec.com/2009/01/26/pfizer-to-buy-wyeth-for-68-billion/ http://www.jnjbtw.com/ http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/ http://pipeline.corante.com/ http://alliconnect.com/
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 Contents News From the Editor Brussels Report Comment On the Move Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - News (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - News (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - Brussels Report (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - Brussels Report (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - Brussels Report (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - Comment (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - Comment (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - February 3, 2009 - On the Move (Page 10)
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