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Christopher Rutty, a science writer and historian and member of a LinkedIn Group that I belong to, posted a link to a Penn and Teller  YouTube video on childhood vaccinations.  I had no idea what to expect, but after viewing the video all I could say was "Wow, how brilliant."  I don't think that I have ever seen a more elegant and easy-to-understand piece on the science and ultimate benefits of childhood vaccinations! 

Hat tip to Penn and Teller and the creative folks behind the video!

Until next time,

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

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According to a blurb in  today's NY Times, a recent Nielsen survey found that over the past year online video gained fewer viewers. More specifically, survey results showed that the number of people who watched online videos increased only 3.1 percent from Jan. 31, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2011. While the number of viewers showed only a slight increase, the amount of time individuals spent viewing video increased almost 45 percent to 4 hours 39 minutes during the same period.

The increase in online video viewing time was attributed to the growing popularity of websites like Netflix and Hulu that offer viewers access to long-form video streaming. This shift may signal the beginning of the end of the popularity of short-form videos offered by sites like YouTube. To that end, in recent months, YouTube (owned by Google) has signaled its intent to focus more on long-form video content.

Although there may be a shift taking place in online video viewing behavior, I think that rumors about the death of online video viewing have been greatly exaggerated. In my opinion, video is here to stay but it may no longer represent a “stand alone” web destination. In the future, video and other rich media assets will likely be bundled with text and other written content as part of the online viewed experience. A good example of this is being pioneered by companies like Atavist—a publisher of long-form journalism and fiction.

Interestingly, the popularity of short form videos is just beginning to take off in the life sciences and related industries. As usual, it appears that lay consumers are way ahead of the scientific community when it comes to cultural trends....go figure!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Viewing!!!!!!!

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While video may be losing some of its “newness" and cache in social media circles, it continues to grow and has become a mainstay of networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and of course YouTube!  Despite its popularity in most industries, the life sciences industry continues to eschew its use. The reasons for this are not clear but it is counter intuitive given the billions of dollars the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies annually invest in direct-to-consumer advertising. 

Several big pharma companies, most notably Johnson & Johnson, have attempted to increase the use of video to connect with its stakeholders but its efforts haven’t yield much of an ROI. I suspect that most industry insiders will tell you that the main reason why video is not routinely used is the lack of regulatory guidelines guiding its use on social media platforms. While this is a facile explanation, the existing regulatory guidelines for direct-to-consumer television advertising certainly apply to video!

In a post today on the EyeonFDA blog, Mark Senak offers a variety of ways in which life sciences companies can leverage video to their advantage to promote good will among shareholders and stakeholders alike. His ideas make sense and are very much within the regulatory guidelines for direct-to-consumer advertising. Whether or not direct-to-consumer advertising is a good thing is a topic for another post!

Until next time...

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

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For the past few years, CEOs have been taking a lot of heat; and in many cases rightfully so. However, from time to time some of these “captains of industry” say things that may be useful to ambitious young executives, employees and would-be entrepreneurs. 

The folks over at BestCollegesOnline sent me a link to a post entitled “The 30 Best CEO Interviews You Should Watch on YouTube.” While I haven’t seen any of the videos (I don’t have the luxury of time to do so), viewing some of them may be worth it!

Check them out and let me know if find a good one.

Until next time...

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

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There is no question that video is taking the Internet by storm and is quickly replacing the written word as a means of communication. Despite the obvious business opportunities offered by videos, most big pharma companies have failed to jump on the video bandwagon. As always, there are exceptions to the status quo and a handful of life sciences companies most notably Johnson & Johnson, have been experimenting with video over the past few years.

According to Mark Senak, the unofficial life sciences company video archivist and author of the always insightful EyeonFDA blog, there are presently about 15 companies that have channels on YouTube; the largest video sharing website on the Internet. Previously, Mark was able to find 10 or so active companies on the YouTube website. Despite this modest increase, Mark notes that most pharma YouTube channels are not regularly maintained and suffer from lack of original content. 

There is no question that video is expensive to make if it is done commercially. However, Ken Grant at Analtech, a small chromatography company in Delaware, who has successfully used video to drive and improve business outcomes, contends that a low cost Flip video camera or equivalent is sufficient to get the job done! 

I suspect that big pharma may be waiting for FDA to weigh in on the use of social media for promotional purposes before it allocates any resources for video production. However, as I have stated many times before, social media can be used in many other ways (besides for promotional purposes) to meet business objectives and maintain corporate brand integrity. Until pharma marketers and brand managers recognize this, social media and pharma will be a moot point.

Until next time...

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

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About a year ago I posted an article to BioJobBlog that suggested that social media can be leveraged to improve clinical trial recruitment to test investigational new drug candidates. Yesterday, Mark Senak, author of the EyeonFDA posted an article which suggested that the use of video on YouTube and other video-viewing sites makes complete sense to recruit prospective participants for human clinical trials. Here are some of Mark’s thoughts on the topic:

“The reasons I think video is a good way to expose people to learning about clinical trials are multiple. First, it allows me as a prospective clinical trial participant to learn about a clinical trial when I want to learn about it and where I want to learn about it - a hallmark of social media.  Second, it is private - I can learn from a video that can be developed to address a wide range of issues - issues that I might not be so comfortable addressing with a live person.  Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I learn about the clinical trials perhaps from someone on a video who is very much like me.  He can be someone with my condition - someone who has gone through a trial, and talk about how his concerns were addressed, what his fears were and what the benefits of participation were.  That, I think, is a much more convincing way to learn about a trial than an ad in a newspaper or even a discussion with a clinical person.  Video can't replace the medical professional, but it sure can get my interest and perhaps trust to make recruitment much easier.”

While the industry’s use of social media for this purpose is not quite there yet, there are some signs that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies may be trending in that direction. First, a growing number of clinical research organizations (CROs) which help companies plan and manage clinical studies are already using social media tools to recruit prospective clinical trials participants. Second, as Mark reported yesterday, Pfizer launched a YouTube channel called PfizerClinicalTeam last July which presumably would bolster clinical trial recruitment. Unfortunately, as Mark pointed, its most recent video was posted in April, 2010, regarding a new study on schizophrenia. Don’t be surprised if other companies launch social media-focused clinical trials recruitment campaigns in the not too distant future. Like Mark, I believe that social media tools are ideal for this purpose!

In other news, Pfizer, a late entrant to the fledgling pharmaceutical social media space, is showing signs that it is beginning to embrace the social media web. Yesterday, Pfizer and Epocrates announced a collaboration to create an application for the iPhone that gives healthcare providers mobile access to the Pfizer Medical Information Group to obtain medical and science information about Pfizer products or to report adverse events. According to Pfizer, it is creating the app to: “enable easy, direct access to its Medical Information services, via the Epocrates channel, in an effort to enhance the safe and effective use of its medicines, and help improve the quality of patient care.”

Direct access to medical information via mobile devices is growing in popularity among physicians and other healthcare providers because it enables them to get answers on the go without wasting time to fire up a laptop or find a tethered computer to use outside of the clinic.

Despite assertions to the contrary by most pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, social media tools are ideal vehicles for adverse event reporting and post market drug surveillance activities. Pfizer’s creation of a mobile medical information app coupled with the launch last week of a joint US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health drug safety portal called Safety Reporting Portal (original eh?) suggest that the use of social media tools for online adverse event reporting and drug safety purposes is not too far off. Let’s see what develops over the next year or so after FDA issues regulatory guidance on the use of social media in the life sciences industry.

Until next time...

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

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We scientists tend to be a serious bunch who often hard on difficult projects with lofty goals and expectations. However, like most other people, many of us have well developed senses of humor and enjoy a good laugh from time to time.

While working on my recent post on pharma and social media, I came across a post on Wendy Blackburn's blog, epharma Rx, that showcased a clever and well-crafted video created by her agency InTouchSolutions to help pharma companies overcome fears about social media.  I think BioJobBlog readers will enjoy it because it uses scientific principles (presumably understood by life sciences companies employees) to poke fun and educate pharma executives about social media 

Hat tip to Wendy and the InTouchSolutions Team

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Viewing!!!!!!!

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The appearance of the Swine Flu aka H1N1 last spring not only created a worldwide panic, it demonstrated to Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands how uninformed the lay public was about viral outbreaks, epidemiology and public health. This prompted Dr. Osterhaus and his colleagues to create a free, online video game called the “The Great Flu” which challenges players to control a new viral pandemic.

As the virus has spread worldwide, countries have tried different methods to slow it down and pharmaceutical companies are now racing to produce a swine flu vaccine (sound familiar?). To fight the emerging outbreak, players use public health measures including setting up surveillance systems, stockpiling antivirals and vaccines, and closing schools and airports. Players also have a limited budget and are warned that "your actions to control the virus cost money, so keep an eye on it." In other words, while the goal is to control the pandemic, there may not be sufficient funds and resources to accomplish those goals!

A running tally of the numbers of people infected and those who have died are displayed above the budget. Newspaper stories about the deadly virus and the global response to it — like riots breaking out worldwide — pop up to help players monitor the outbreak and plan their next moves. Messages from governments mirror the difficulties faced by international agencies like WHO that are responsible for containing worldwide epidemics. For example, when players set up costly surveillance systems, sometimes participating governments will send a message "we will comply with your directions...but we must inform you that the political support for this action is low in this region. Therefore, the effectiveness of the system to control the outbreak may differ from your expectations."

The goal of the game is make the lay public aware of the difficulties that public health officials encounter during pandemics and the tight rope they sometimes must walk to insure that the virus is contained and doesn’t continue to spread. To test your skill level at controlling pandemics, you can choose different viruses (which range from easy to difficult to manage) at the beginning of the game.

I think “The Great Flu” is a great way to educate the public about infectious diseases and epidemiology and have fun at the same time. If you are interested in more sinister online swine flu games check this out.  Who said learning science has to be tedious and dull?

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Virus Hunting!!!!!

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I had little to do last night, so I decided to download Stumble Upon for Firefox.  While I was stumbling, I came across an outstanding video that teaches and reinforces the underlying principles of chemical reactions. If I had this type of tutorial when I was an undergraduate, I might very well have become a chemist rather than a biologist!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Reactions!!!!!!!

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First, King Pharmaceuticals posted a non-branded high blood pressure video on YouTube in early 2007. Next, Novartis added a 60-second commercial (as part of its Fluflix campaign) asking people to submit videos about what it's like to have the flu. Earlier this year, Insmed upped the ante by posting a video lobbying for new legislation for the approval of follow-on biologics in the US. However, these pharma assaults on YouTube pale in comparison to the launch of Johnson & Johnson’s health channel on YouTube earlier this week.

The channel currently showcases a small selection of health information videos created by NBC News chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman while she worked J&J. Video sites, like YouTube and Vimeo, offer pharma companies a place to feature expensive off media advertising assets (that are currently collecting dust) and to post ads for new drugs and products that are ready for launch.  J &J is the first pharma company to recognize that it can leverage the current social media craze to increase its visibility, sell more drugs and bolster its stock price!

While companies could host videos on their own websites,YouTube’s massive traffic of more than 80 million users offers companies a much larger and diverse audience. And unlike blogs or forums, pharma companies have complete control over the content of the videos that they post on video websites. Moreover, they don't have to worry about negative comments being left after a post (YouTube comments can be turned off), and they can brand and edit video content to target a particular demographic or audience. Finally, videos can be changed or removed by companies as needed.

The bad news is, that like all other forms of media on the Internet, there are currently no regulations for videos posted by pharma companies on video websites sites like YouTube. In other words, pharma companies can do or say whatever they want in the videos that they post—never a good thing! I suspect that at some point FDA will draft a guidance document or two on the topic. But pharma companies need not worry, it will likely be many years before the agency divines regulations guiding the messaging and content of online pharmaceutical videos.

The appearance of pharma videos on YouTube, and the growing number of pharma profiles on social networking sites indicates that pharma is ready to embrace social media as the next best thing since DTC advertising. I was wondering what took them so long?

I hope that J&J doesn’t start following me on Twitter!

Hat tip to Eye on FDA for the story!

Until next time,

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

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