EMDC

Planet Money starts to dive into branded vs generic drug pricing, the insurance industry’s view on the pricing, the pharma industry’s view on the insurance industry’s view, and what that means for you when you’re standing at the drug store with a prescription in hand.

One of the features of the South by Southwest Interactive festival is that they allow the attendees and interested parties to help determine the programming. I’ve rated about half of the 2200-ish submissions. I’ll describe my rating process and my general impressions of this year’s Panelpicker.

“A group of attendees heavy on public relations and drug company employees brainstormed about the possibilities of using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about their products, or maybe about a particular condition, and connect with the end users: physicians and patients. There’s a big catch for drug makers, however. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t really determined where these communications fit into its regulatory scheme.” — Biggest problem is they’re usually thinking of social media in terms of how can they market and sell, not how can they build relationships with doctors and patients. Expecting a bunch of senior executives to come up with a policy, when I’m pretty sure they’re not the most knowledgeable folks about the medium, is asking for… maybe not disaster, but certainly something ineffective and meaningless.

“The Scientist has reported that, yes, it’s true, Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them.”