Novartis, Boehringer Start Using Twitter Accounts

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: February 18, 2009 / 1:02 PM EST / MoneyWatch

AstraZeneca, Novartis, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim have started experimenting with Twitter with varying degrees of enthusiasm, reports Pharmaceutical Executive.

Drug companies have so far looked at social media with a mixture of fear and loathing. They believe (perhaps wrongly) that giving consumers more opportunities to talk to drug companies will lead to an increase in adverse event reports and the lawsuits that follow them.

But it seems that 2009 will be the year that drug companies come out of their shell. Pfizer and AZ also have initiatives to engage a bit more with the blogosphere. And Johnson & Johnson has already acquired a social media business around Type 1 diabetes.

So what are these drug company Twitters like? Pharma versions of Twitter Queen Julia Allison? (Sample: "There comes a point in all Manhattan girls' lives in which Every Single Party they attend contains at least 2 exes. I've reached that point.")

Um, no. Here's the thinking of Shwen Gwee, lead business analyst, health informatics and new media, business solutions for Vertex Pharmaceuticals:

"The biggest challenge people face with corporate communications is its standardized-process type of review. Twitter is a new medium for putting a template out there; unlike a press release, you will get responses--it's not a broadcast."

Fun!

But seriously, Gwee isn't finished thinking -- Vertex signed on to Twitter last June but hasn't actually started Tweeting yet. The speed of pharma!

Here's a side by side look at Big Pharma in tweet land.

AZ - no updates, 20 followers, following 0 http://twitter.com/astrazeneca* UPDATE - See correction appended below.
Novartis - 29 updates, 182 followers, following 0 (sample: "Sandoz receives European Commission approval for biosimilar filgrastim") http://twitter.com/Novartis
Vertex - 1 update, 0 followers, following 0 (sample: "Signing on to Twitter!") http://twitter.com/Vertex_Intl
Boehringer Ingelheim - 32 updates, 265 followers, following 439. (sample: "Kudos to the UK Department of Health and The Stroke Association for their stroke awareness campaign. See the TV ad:") http://twitter.com/Boehringer
AZ - 7 updates, 130 followers, 123 following (sample: "AZ applauds health provisions in stimulus bill http://tinyurl.com/az5ng4") http://twitter.com/AstraZenecaUS

BI is by far the most advanced in this space. While both AZ and BI are using their Twitter accounts to carry an RSS feed of their press releases, BI's staff also seems to have permission to engage in some harmless banter with other twitterers. (Sample: "@MaverickNY Really like your blog, especially this post http://tiny.cc/BI013 Keep up the good work!") The company is also following more people than are following it -- this seems to be a sign that BI is interested in learning more than it gives out. The BI site has also been customized with the usual corporate pharma "inspirational" images -- in this case an elderly Asian dude standing on top of a mountain and a child staring into a tropical fish aquarium.

OK, so it's not going displace Allison's updates on her love life, but it proves it can be done.

BNET's previous coverage of Big Pharma and social media:
A Q&A With J&J's Joe Natale on Why Pharma Stays Stuck in the Web's Past

* It turns out that AZ does not own twitter.com/astrazeneca and instead tweets from twitter.com/AstraZenecaUS, according to an AZ spokesperson. Apologies for the confusion. But doesn't this sound like a new issue for AZ's IP lawyers? This is TwittSquatting! (I claim copyrights on the invention of the legal concept of "TwittSquatting.")