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What a difference six months can make in the fast moving world of the social web! At last May’s Advanced Learning Institute’s conference on “Social Media for Pharma” there was a lot of anxiety, hand wringing and concern about the future of social media in the life sciences industry. 

Things were much different at “Social Media for Pharma” (also sponsored by the Advance Learning Institute) held earlier this week in Manhattan. Like last May’s meeting, there was still much speculation about when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may provide the much awaited regulatory guidance on the use of social media for promotional purposes in the pharmaceutical industry. And, despite a presentation by FDA representatives at the meeting—that somewhat paradoxically described how the agency was using social media tools like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to better educate and inform the American public about its activities and services —there were no hints about when the agency may issuing that guidance. Nevertheless, the number of pharma and biotechnology companies that have decided to “take the plunge into the social media pool” has grown substantially since last May. In fact, I got the sense that many of the conference participants were beginning to believe that implementing social media strategies was possible even if the agency fails to issue the long awaited guidance!

Generally speaking, there was a growing consensus at the meeting that the use of social media for promotional purposes—specifically to bolster sales of approved and marketed drugs and devices—may not be its best use. Several presentations, most notably those offered by Justin Gardener and Lindsey Hart from Advanced BioHealing, Inc and Jenny Keeney from Astellas Pharma US, Inc showed how social media can be used by life sciences companies to improve healthcare outcomes for patients and promote science education to improve the public understanding of science. Nancy Buono Cartwright from Kaiser Permanente gave a great talk on how to use social media to enhance corporate communication and employee participation and retention. 

A panel discussion featuring Dennis Urbaniak, Sanofi Aventis, Cynthia Phillips, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Justin Gardner, Advanced BioHealing, Inc and lead by John Mack aka the Pharma Guy was insightful and extremely illuminating regarding pharma’s changing attitudes toward social media. All of the panelists agreed that the drug industry is in transition and that now may be the time to try new things to get back to addressing unmet medical and patient needs. More importantly, Dennis Urbaniak stressed that pharma must begin to listen to what patients and stakeholders want rather than dictating or imposing “its” ideas and products on them. And, that it is apparent that social media provides an ideal vehicle to accomplish that goal.

Finally, Doug Levy, a compliance lawyer and Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs Columbia Medical Center, gave an inspiring talk on how social media is no different than traditional modes of communication and that best practices already exist whether or not FDA ever issues any additional guidance on the topic! It appears that it is no longer a question of “if” but “when” as pharma continues to warm to inevitability of social media.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Tweeting or Whatever Your SM Tool of Choice May Be

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After announcing that it would lay off about 4,000 workers two weeks and then refusing to disclose which facilities would be affected,  the British drug maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today revealed that several hundred workers at it Harlow, Essex  facility will lose their jobs. 

The Harlow facility, formerly the headquarters of SmithKlineBeecham which was taken over by Glaxo almost 10 years ago, is located 25 miles (40 km) northeast of London. Although not confirmed, as many as 380 of the 1,1150 employees at the facility may lose their jobs.

Stay tuned for more GSK layoff updates!

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!

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Despite the announcement late last week in the London Sunday Times that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will eliminate 4000 jobs worldwide, company official are refusing to disclose the number of worker who will lose their jobs in the US. Cuts are expected throughout the US including GSK’s R&D facilities in the Philadelphia, PA area and at its US headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC which employs roughly 5,000 people.

GSK officials typically refuse to share detailed information on how layoffs affect its Triangle work force. Nearly a year ago, the company cut an undisclosed number of workers at a customer response center in RTP. GSK announced a first cost-cutting initiative in October 2007, eliminating thousands of jobs worldwide, and then it expanded that effort in February 2009 with many hundreds losing jobs at it North Carolina facilities in RTP and nearby Zebulon.

This coming Thursday is expected to be pink slip day at GSK.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget RTP)!!!!!!!

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After announcing yesterday that it will be reorganizing and closing 6 of 20 R&D sites worldwide, Pfizer/Wyeth announced today that as many as 2000 R&D scientists will lose their jobs. I suspect that others will lose their jobs in the next few months or so.

The Pfizer/Wyeth and Merck Schering Plough mergers signal the beginning of the end of the traditional vertically integrated pharmaceutical business model. It is evident that pharma is shifting away from its almost 100 year focus on R&D and manufacturing to less labor intensive and costly activities like advertising, marketing, sales and distribution—things that drug makers have excelled in the past decade or so. Innovation will likely no longer come from within but from external sources including academia, biotechnology companies and third party vendors including CROs and CMOs.   

While the loss of thousands of R&D scientists will have little impact on the productivity and operations of life sciences companies themselves, it has serious implications for academic institutions that train life sciences graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In the past, PhD scientists who were unable to find academic jobs too refuge and found gainful employment in the life sciences industry. However, American industrial R&D jobs are becoming harder and harder to find as larger companies continue to outsource those activities, to Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. And, the competition for the remaining jobs is becoming increasingly fierce. Put simply, academic institutions have to begin to realize that we no longer need as many PhD-trained life scientists as we have in the past. At present, there is a glut of PhD life scientists in the US, many of whom can’t find jobs. Perhaps, this should be taken into account before graduate school admissions committees determine the number of new graduate students they will admit next year.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!

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