Jim Edwards at
BrandweekNRX has an account of the first (and probably the last) Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Bloggers Summit. I give J & J credit for inviting Edwards, whose blog is not always particularly pro-Pharma, as well as for inviting Ed Silverman, whose
Pharmalot blog generally takes a decidedly different view than J & J's PR department. Issuing and invite to
John Mack was also a good move.
There is apparently some talk at J & J about giving every employee their own blog and letting them talk about whatever they want. I can see it now -- this one from a hypothetical employee in the Janssen division...
Time to come clean. We've marketed Risperdal off-label for dementia, bipolar disorder (thank God we eventually got FDA-approved for bipolar!), depression, and pretty much whatever else we could for years. We were involved in getting Texas to adopt those funky TMAP guidelines that essentially mandated that state-funded mental health patients receive pricey drugs like Risperdal, even though the evidence favoring this idea is pretty flimsy. Oh, and Invega -- who's falling for THAT?? Seriously? It's the freaking metabolite of Risperdal. So when Risperdal goes generic, this is how we plan to keep the gravy train rolling. Hey, it worked for Lexapro (son of Celexa). But before you get all upset about it -- everyone else is doing it (1, 2)!
Again, this is just what a
hypothetical employee might say. Maybe I'm just too cynical. If J & J is cool with employees draping the dirty laundry on blogs, then they've just become my favorite member of the Big Pharma team and I'll sing their praises until the cows come home. I would bet that their
PhRMA membership would be immediately revoked should the open blog concept become a reality.
