'Round the Sphere: Wonky Kryptonite, Ethics, and Videotape

You know, of course, it is impossible to review al the important stuff going on in the expanding Pharma Blogosphere^TM. The best I can do is offer my own eclectic glimpse into trends, fun stuff, and major rants.

Thanks to Steve Woodruff of impactiviti, therefore, for putting together PharmaCentral (see "Flaky" PharmaCentral Launched!), a portal "designed to give you fingertip access to a number of targeted blogs, so that you can more easily and quickly find updated commentary on a variety of topics." Basically, Steve has organized public feeds from blogs into categories based on the focus of the blog. A number of "flakes" or windows into the feed content of blogs appear on a single page.

My suggestion: Use Pharma Blogosphere and PharmaCentral in concert -- the former gives you insight and commentary plus reviews of the blogs in the space (not to mention ratings by readers -- more on that later), the latter is an unedited glimpse into recent posts from blogs.

Steve's blog (impactiviti) is about pharma sales training, in case you are interested.

ASIDE TO STEVE: What ever happened to the discussion of sales training going too far (see Steve's post "How Far is Too Far?"). This question was prompted by the Zubillaga Affair (or Zube Affair, or ZubeGate; your choice) and sales training PPT, which seems to prompt sales reps to make off-label head to head comparisons of 2 drugs on sales calls. Steve asks: "The defense was made that this was a 'for information only' training piece, and the information was not to be used for detailing. Well, maybe. Here’s the question I’d like to have your comments on - where does a company draw the line between giving out information like this to sales reps, even if there is a “not for detailing” disclaimer? Where does this stand with the compliance/ethical practices of your company? How far is too far?"

Can we expect any answers to these questions any time soon? Inquiring minds want to know.

Drug Wonks Have Sense of Humor -- Who Knew?
Finally, Drug Wonks (aka "PR Wonks," Whoops! Did I just violate Rulemaker Giles' Rule #4?) post a light, humorous piece! Here it is in its entirety:

Real Kryptonite Found: FDA Puts Black Box Warning on Related Products

The FDA announced today that all supplements and products derived from kryptonite would have a black box warning. Dr. David Graham had pressured the agency after noting that the presence of kryptonite would pose a serious and life threatening danger to Superman, Supergirl and other survivors of the planet Krypton. Graham had been pushing Congress to expand it's drug safety program to move beyond "merely planetary surveillance activities" and into galactic exploration of pharmacovigilance matters. The FDA said in a press release " this pilot project is part of our effort to develop a global and indeed galactic risk management program." The agency had planned to establish this program in partnership with Luthor Industries and the Justice League of America but was attacked by members of Congress for being too "cozy" with special interests.

I guess everyone has heard of the discovery of Kryptonite on planet Earth reported recently in the press? If not, this tongue-in-cheek piece may cause you to scratch your head.

More Ethics Anyone?
There's a new kid on the block -- or, should I say, new orb in the Outer Sphere: Hooked blog, which was launched back in February "accompany the recent publication of [the author's, Harold Brody] book, Hooked: Ethics, the Medical Profession, and the Pharmaceutical Industry. Hat tip to Jack Friday at PharmaGossip, who continues to discover new planets!

I wonder what Paul Marinelli, the author of the blog Pharma Ethics, My Foot! thinks of this new blog? Sounds like they should duke it out. BTW, where are you Paul? We haven't seen a new post to your blog since...February! Hmmmm...coincidence! Could Harold Brody and Paul Marinelli be alter egos of the same person! C'mon Paul! Write something scathing please (Rule #4 be damned!).

I'm a little conflicted about adding Hooked to the list of Pharma Blogosphere members. After all, Hooked is obviously geared to promote a single product: the author's book, which BTW I will definitely BUY and READ!

Brody, however, is engaged in an interesting project whereby a blog is designed to update the contents of a book and the author offers interaction with his readers:

"My major goal with this blog is to allow updates on the book's contents. The topic--the relationship between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry--is hot right now, and practically every day, new developments occur and new information is published. I wanted to have a platform to inform interested readers of those developments that seem to me especially pertinent or important, and that might modify some statement or fact given in the book."

But why the book? Why not just the blog? Will the blog out live the book, which may never make it it to a second printing? Too many questions for me to answer this early in the AM.

The AZ Videotape
Peter Rost is at AZ again! The latest brouhaha is the "Secret AstraZeneca Audio Tapes" (see here and here and practically everywhere in the Pharma Blogosphere; hope I implemented Rule #1 adequately).

So far, we've seen the lies and the videotape. Where's the sex Peter?

OK, so it's an AUDIOTAPE, not a Videotape! Sue me! The real question is where's the sex?

Frankly, I haven't been keeping up with all these revelations and have not listened to any of the tracks that Peter has uploaded. I notice, however, that he uses a third-pary storage site called Box where he deposits all his media file (see, for example, Track 7). You get 1 GB of storage free! If Peter keeps up this pace of revelations, he will soon have to upgrade!

Hey, Judge Mack has just had a tattoo done and wants to show you! Click here to see it.

'Round the Sphere: You're Fired, You Too! More Blogs to View!

First, Mike Zubillaga was fired by AZ. Then Don Imus was fired by CBS! Both for saying something stupid! It goes to show that employees everywhere, not just in pharmaceutical companies, do dumb things.

But these incidents are connected in another way: bloggers in the Pharma Blogosphere may have played a role in getting these guys fired.

Peter Rost (Question Authority; damn! another reference to Rost which will raise him even higher on the topics list! I'm sure he'll note this in his blog!) was quick to take credit for Zube's demise. I don't think anyone in the Pharma Blogosphere would dispute that. See "Peter Rost gets an AstraZeneca employee fired." (Medical Weblog)

But did you know that a famous Pharma Blogosphere blogger may have been partially responsible for the firing of Imus? And who would this blogger be? Why, me, of course! Whaaa?!! you say? It's true. Here's how I figure it.

First, I call upon GSK to pull its ads from the Imus in the Morning show (see "Glaxo, Pull Your Imus Ads!"). That was posted at 6 AM on Wednesday, April 11. At around 5 PM that day I notice a post on PharmaGossip reporting that GSK pulled its ads ("GSK pulls ads from Imus' show").

All that day, I had been watching my Web logs and noticed that GSK and their PR agency people were reading the post (Peter Rost is not the only blogger that reads his log files and reveals the identity of his readers, but that's another story). Then, GSK announces it will pull their ads! (look here and here).

But GSK doesn't issue any kind of statement, as did P&G, citing "we're accountable first to our consumers." Instead of putting their consumers first, GSK put itself first: "The bottom line is that we have suspended our advertising with MSNBC until we can determine that we can have a level of confidence that our media standards are being adhered to."

Not only does GSK put itself first, it uses the dreaded "bottom line" phrase. This says volumes as to where pharma's priorities lie and until the industry becomes more consumer-centric in both word and deed, they will never win the PR war for the hearts of consumers (for more on that, see "Pharma Still Stinks, But Not as Much as Oil or Tobacco!").

So, I call for GSK to pull its ads --> GSK pulls its ads --> And by pulling their ads, GSK and other advertisers put the screws to CBS, which fires Imus! QED!

But enough about me already!

New Members
The Pharma Blogosphere blog is becoming the place to be noticed by bloggers and readers of blogs alike! I no longer have to explore the outer limits of the sphere to find new members -- they come to me!

Whenever I come upon a new blog worthy of being a member, I automatically put it in the "Outer Sphere" column until I can assess whether or not they are truly focused on pharma and are updated often enough. Only those blogs that fit these two criteria make it to the Inner Planet circle of the Pharma Blogosphere.

These new blogs have been added to the "Outer Sphere" recently:

Drug Channels: "Expert viewpoints by Dr. Adam J. Fein on the latest pharmaceutical industry trends affecting manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacies, PBMs, and payers" is its tagline. "My focus is helping manufacturers understand/interact with their supply chain to the patient: pharmacies, wholesalers, PBMs, etc.," says Adam in a personal email.

Labs' Insider : "A journey to the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry" says this blog'stagline. I guess you don't have to guess the bias of the blogger Pierre Tavel, who is Swiss and a student in sociology.

Pharma Ethics, My Foot!: Again, you don't need a mission statement to know where Paul Marinelli, the blogger, stands on pharma issues. I never would have thought anyone would dis the idea of ethics so blatantly, but there you have it. I would like to see Paul actually make a post ABOUT ethics, however.

Focus on Pharmalyst
You may have noticed that I moved some blogs into or out of the Inner Planet circle. Pharmalyst, for example, was moved in. First, I like numbers and that is what this blog is about. Sorry, there is no second.

JS, the blogger, hopes one day to find a job in the pharmaceutical industry, so he is keeping his identity a secret:

"Only reason I wish to be anonymous is that I hope to graduate sometime next year and at that point I hope to apply for jobs at:

a. Many pharma companies: Specifically looking for jobs in the market research/finance area
b. Any financial type company covering the pharma sector

I am sure that if they knew my status as a blogger, my resume will go straight to the trash can. For a lot of reasons (family/friends etc), I like the pharma industry and I really respect the science & innovation that comes out of this industry..and I am also aware that there are a lot of shady practices in the industry (thanks to all you bloggers). I have been reading many of the pharma blogs for months and hopefully have absorbed some of the jargon/lingo via osmosis. I hope this will give me an advantage re the job search. I also wish to learn more about the industry by chiming in with my own 2 cents and get feedback from the 35 readers I seem to be averaging :-)

If I do get a job with one of these companies, I probably will stop blogging though I will continue reading all the great blogs out there :-)"

Too bad that JS feels he has to give up blogging once he is a hired gun for the industry. Maybe he should have been more coy about that because this lowers him one notch on my credibility scale.

Phama Giles ("Fresh Fruit From Rotting Vegetables...") had this to say on that:

"Don’t do it!" was my initial reaction.

Such is the level of arrogance and hubris within the industry, that I fear Pharmalyst’s putative career may already be over faster than you can say “illegal IP trace”. But perhaps I am being unduly pessimistic. Or paranoid. Or just plain stupid. Hey, let’s not be narrow-minded here. I could so easily be all three.

Giles, another anonymity, goes on to rant and rave about how bad it is to work in the industry. yadda, yadda, yadda

My view: Go for it kid! And do good things. We need more people like you inside pharmaceutical companies, not less! Who knows, by the time you apply for a job, pharma may have cottoned to blogs and want someone with blogging experience. Hey, it could happen!