Mack Palsy-Walsy with Chase, Editor-in-Chief at MM&M

What happens when two editors get together at a fancy dress party with an open bar?

Smashed, that's what!

Here's James Chase, Editor-in-Chief at MM&M, and me whooping it up at the 2007 MM&M Awards after party last night at the Tavern on the Green in NYC.

I am sure James was smashed. I was merely inebriated.

That's James posing with me on the left.

I liked James right off the bat because he impressed me by being intimately familiar with my writings at Pharma Marketing Blog. He especially liked the post "Awards. What Are They Good For?".

As I said, awards are good for parties and the MM&M party is right up there with the best. It was very much like a very expensive wedding party!

Thanks James for having me as a guest.

[Read more about the MM&M Awards ceremony here, including who the winners were and what could have hapenned if I acted out my Borat moment.]

Mystery Blog Panel Revealed

A few months ago, Ed Silverman over at Pharmalot, asked me if I would like to participate on a blog panel he planned to moderate at an upcoming DTC Perspectives conference (see "Do Pharma Blogs Have Any Influence?"). At the time, however, I was embroiled in a tiff with Bob Ehrlich (see "Mack and Meyer Clash with Publisher Over 'Journalistic Integrity'"), the chairman of DTC Perspectives. So I assumed that neither Myer nor I would be invited. Ed made no promises and I told him not to worry -- he shouldn't go out on a limb to get me invited.

Well, I wasn't invited, which is OK. This is not sour grapes. I was busy presenting at another conference elsewhere anyway (see "J&J Blog, Shire PR: The Whole Story and Nothing But the Whole Story!").

I have since made amends with Bob and helped his people promote the DTC conference by being a Media Sponsor. I did hope to attend the blog panel session and report on it, but in the end I decided that I couldn't afford to be out of the office, spending 4 hours driving back and forth to attend a 45-minute session. I hoped that Ed would blog about it on Pharmalot -- but so far, he has said nothing.

In fact, Ed and Bob had been very secretive as to who exactly would be the bloggers on the panel. The conference agenda on the website just said "Bloggers/Panelists to be announced" and even when asked, Ed refused to name the panelists. Even up to the day of the conference, Ed remained mute on that subject (see his post, above).

Why all the secrecy, I wonder?

Here's a report on the panel from Christiane Truelove, author of the Pharma Blogs: Week in Review e-newsletter:

Bloggers on pharma blogging
Yesterday I left the office and made the trek up to Parsippany, N.J., to participate on a panel about pharmaceutical blogging at a conference hosted by DTC Perspectives. Mr. Silverman had invited me to participate, and I was flattered. I am unaccustomed to public speaking, having spent most of my career lurking around with a notebook and pen and asking the questions, instead of having questions asked of me.

The more-than-two-hour-drive along Route 287 notwithstanding, the panel, which examined whether pharmaceutical blogs were influencing consumers and opinion leaders, went pretty well. Some of the highlights:

Mr. Silverman touched on how blogs create the opportunity to exploit word-of-mouth communication. Most of all, pharmaceutical blogs give an opportunity for people from very different areas a chance to mingle and network — physicians, industry people, and consumers. “These were people who two years ago, weren’t connecting with each other,” he says.

For Mr. Hensley, the comments to posts on the Wall Street Journal Health Blog are extremely interesting because of the intelligent level of the discourse. “Sometimes the blog is just a starting-off point,” he says.

Mr. Pitts says although the pharmaceutical industry may wish these blogs to go away, blogging — “a wonderful, terrible, unexpurgated type of media” — is here to stay, and the industry must learn how to deal with it. He pointed out that certain types of stories are getting deeper coverage in the blogs rather than the mainstream media.

In answer to an audience question as to how companies should address legal fears about participating in the online conversation, the panelists generally agreed that the corporate lawyers always will give the most conservative advice. Mr. Pitts pointed out that the FDA regulations about online communication as far as blogs were concerned were practically nonexistent, and companies that want to engage in more online communication should be able to prudently handle what risk there may be.

The "blogger" panelists -- Ed Silverman (Newark Star-Ledger/Pharmalot), Scott Hensley (Wall Street Journal/Health Blog), Peter Pitts (Manning Selvage & Lee/Drug Wonks), and Christiane Truelove (MedAdNews) -- were of all one stripe: journalists or PR hack! It can be debated whether or not they are representative of the Pharma Blogosphere community as a whole, but at least they know the territory and are familiar with all the luminaries.

A Hack-in-the-Pack
Peter Pitts (the PR hack-in-the-pack), however, would not have been on my list of invited panelists. He is neither trustworthy nor transparent. Pitts is the biggest shill for the pharma industry there is. Don't take my word for it, read what GoozNews has to say about him here.

Pitts often uses words I do not understand like "unexpurgated" to describe blogs! (I looked it up on Google: it means "not having material deleted" or "uncensored news reports".) That's very funny coming from a guy who is known to delete posts from his own blog (see "DrugWanks Pull Post")!

OK, so it wasn't my dream blogger panel! But who would be on such a dream panel? Give me your opinion by taking this simple poll (see results so far after you vote):

Select the Members of YOUR "Dream" Pharma Blogger Panel
	Mack/Pharma Marketing Blog
	Myer/World of DTC Marketing
	Silverman/Pharmalot
	Insider/PharmaGossip
	Giles/Pharma Giles
	Shanley/On Pharma
	Henessey et al/WSJ Health Blog
	Rost/NRx
	Fard/HealthcareVOX
	Woodruff/Impactiviti
	Senak/EyeOnFDA
	Carlat/The Carlat Pschiatry Blog
	Anonymous/PharmaFraud
	Lowe/In the Pipeline
	Monseau/JNJ Blog
	Pitts/Drug Wonks
	Someone Else/Not Listed

Mack and Meyer Clash with Publisher Over "Journalistic Integrity"

It all started with a simple, innocent post about doctors prostituting themselves to pharmaceutical companies (see "Pimp My Doc!") and a little offhand remark therein about the fabled "separation of church and state" at medical journals. Specifically, I wondered how an editor could shrug off $750,000 in lost advertising revenue because of remarks she made out of publication. Imagine what would happen if she dared publish her remarks!

That lead to a piece by Christiane Truelove who, as a trade publication editor, says she tries to live by the dictum "Buy our Space, not our words" or something to that effect (see "Christiane Truelove of MedAdNews Says 'Buy Our Space, Not Our Words'").

That lead me to explore the whole church and state thing more closely in a follow-up post to my blog: "Trade Publications Must Be More than Drug Industry Cheerleaders!"

That's when the proverbial sh*t hit the willing fan!

In my post, I quoted World of DTC marketing author Rich Meyer, who had some unkind criticism of DTC Perspectives (an industry trade publication): "This trade magazine is such a joke that nobody in the industry really takes it seriously. It's news is shallow and outdated and, judging from the list of the top 25 marketers, its selection criteria is based more upon relationships within the industry than what anyone has actually done, or has not done."

But Rich didn't get angry email from Bob Ehrlich, the publisher of DTC Perspectives. I did!

I won't quote what Bob said, because it was a private email (Bob refuses to submit comments to my blog posts like everyone else who really wishes to engage in constructive dialogue). Suffice it to say he was mad, defensive, and said he will never read my blog again.

So much for my tough love approach of trying to offer constructive criticism and open a dialogue about how to improve the utility of trade publications to industry readers.

My mistake was suggesting to Bob that instead of shooting the messenger, he should contact Rich Meyer if he was that upset about the quote. And contact Meyer he did!

Meyer has chosen to quote some of what Ehrlich said in email to him in his post "Attack from industry trade publication," in which you will find some choice words.

Meyer thought Bob needed some TLC: "Wow someone obviously is drinking too much caffeine and is in dire need of some great sex to relieve the tension."

Let's step back from the juicy stuff for a minute and look at the issues.

#1: How to Have/Not Have Constructive Dialog/Dialogue with a Blogger
Don't write him/her personal email messages to get your point of view across. Coin of the realm in the Pharma Blogopshere is reader comments that everyone can see and respond to. That's the kind of dialog we want! Speaking of dialog, did anyone listen to my podcast "Blogs vs. DTC: What's Best for Consumers?" which featured Bob Ehrlich as a guest? It was all about him and his views, which I compliantly set him up to deliver. I guess that "offer of dialog" was nothing more than chopped liver!

#2: Don't Confuse Blogging with Journalism
In one email missive, Ehrlich said: "You and John Mack make a good pair- you attack with no thought that fairness is part of journalism, even opinion pieces." This is a wonderful example of a common misconception and I don't mean the misconception that Mack and Meyer make a good pair. Holding bloggers up to journalistic standards is oxymoronic! Blogging is everything that journalism is not and more so. What blogger wants to be "fair"? What does that mean, anyway? I guess I am not being fair here because I quoted Ehrlich "out of context." If I quoted the context then Ehrlich would come across even worse. Therefore, I am being more fair to his image than if I quoted his rant in its entirety! BTW, I started my blog primarily to present my biased view, which is, by definition, unfair! Live with it!

#3: Bloggers are Not Team Players!
It's funny that Ehrlich says me and Meyer make great team. I hadn't teamed up with Meyer until Ehrlich began his rants and raves against us and put us on the same team! Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows that us bloggers are often at each other's throats and don't hesitate to put one another down, sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes not so subtle. It's a dog eat dog eat black kitty world out there in the Pharma Blogosphere. But back to Meyer and Mack: We've decided to team up at least on one project: more on that later. Stay tuned!

Fard Johnmar Interviews John Mack on Bloggers and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Have you seen the HealthDot video commentary site?

If not, I suggest that you take a look first at the informative interview of John Mack (Pharma Marketing Blog) by Fard Johnmar (HealthcareVOX).

Although this interview was done back in April at the Healthcare Blogging Summit in Las Vegas, it is still very relevant today.

In the interview, Fard and I touch upon the credibility of pharma blogs, the effect of journalist bloggers, and the role that blogs can play in informing the industry.

View the video here.

Some Background on HealthDot.
As stated in the About page of the site:

HealthDot was created by ScribeMedia.Org as a non-partisan, informational and analytical multimedia publication that offers expert opinion on the future of the American health care industry. We do this from the perspective of three primary constituencies: Consumers, Providers, and Employers.

We bring together key players, report on their opinions, uncover current trends, and analyze the legislation that will affect it all.

The recent HealthDot Pharma Report 04 is very entertaining and covers the Avandia House Committee hearing, online pharma fraud, counterfeit drugs, Nigeria vs. Pfizer, and "erectile malfunction."

The latter topic includes the appearance of "Pharma Girl," who explains what priapism is. Pharma Girl is not related to "PhRMA Intern," whose latest adventure, "PhRMA Intern and the No-Strings-Attached CME Proof!", can be found here.

HealthDot does have an agenda, which is obvious from the following statements:

Politicians, academics and analysts from all political perspectives have come to the same conclusion: The US healthcare system is broken. They’ve fielded studies, issued reports, legislated, debated and spent millions lobbying for one change or another.

Still, the simple fact remains that the country has tens of millions of uninsured and underinsured, prohibitive costs for employers both large and small and byzantine rules, regulations, practices and processes that point to further systemic erosion over the next decade as 72 million baby boomers begin their retirements.

In the end, we aim for intelligent and informed debate as the country seeks solutions to a national crisis.

Perhaps Michael Moore is involved with these guys? Not that that's a bad thing!

John Mack Quoted in Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine!

I love Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine! I especially like it when they quote me as they did in this month's (June 2007) issue. You'll find me quoted in the article "A Dream Campaign: Takeda's Rozerem ads aren't just fun. They're a new paradigm for insomnia treatment."

The PharmExec article quotes me as saying "While the company is doing a slow buildup, the sales are doing a slow burn." I still stand by that even though Chris Benecchi -- product director for Rozerem marketing -- "claims that the slow build was the plan all along."

But sales of Rozerem are dismal for a product that is ranked #10 in DTC spending for 2006 and I have the data to prove it (nicely plotted in a pie chart).

What galls me are all the articles written in trade publications and the press touting how great the Rozerem campaign is and all the accolades heaped upon the agencies involved.

No one with any pharma industry publishing authority is admitting that the emperor has no clothes. Why is that?

To find out why and get your hands on some sleep aid sales data, read my post to Pharma Marketing Blog: "Rozerem DTC Ads: New Paradigm or Paradox?"

P.S. Needless to say, my blog visits spiked on Monday after the latest issue of Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine "hit the stands." This is a testament to the power of publications like PE. It is a shame, however, that PE and other mainstream publications may be unduly influenced by advertising to such an extent that they cannot pull the wool AWAY from our eyes.

I guess that's why blogs like Pharma Marketing Blog and others in the Pharma Blogosphere are growing in popularity, especially among industry insiders.

An ongoing Pharma Marketing Blog reader survey reveals that over 40% of my readers are employed in the pharmaceutical industry and over 60% of readers are somewhat or very supportive of the drug industry. Keep in mind that the general Pharma Blogosphere Reader Survey characterized Pharma Marketing Blog as "critical" of the industry.

This speaks to the fact that many pharmaceutical people who support the industry would like to read something critical of the industry. Perhaps they learn more from critics than form industry cheerleaders?

Frankly, I think PE (and other industry publications -- I do not want to single out PE) should devote some space in their publication to contrarian views in order to stir the pot!

Dear PE Editor: I am available to write such a column for your publication.