Headwinds loom for pharma web strategy

We’ve come a long way since pharma’s websites were “best viewed with Netscape Navigator 1.0” and the web designs that were prevalent way back in the mid-1990s would hurt modern eyes with their lack of sophistication.

Nonetheless, how to best respond to what 30 years ago was still the world wide web remains a question that has yet to be wholly answered. The industry has some pressing new challenges to face in the web space, but many companies also have yet to confront some legacy issues.

Preeminent among these are the huge variety and number of websites that most pharma companies still have. Within a single company these might be in the high hundreds, or even the low thousands, many of which may not be known about at a central level or have no clear strategic intent. Without some serious review or consolidation, this causes significant problems of efficiency, not to mention the negative end-user experiences most of our benchmarks are showing.

How pharma’s sales and marketing teams are starting to use AI

This summer a fully AI-generated drug entered phase II clinical trials for the first time, as Hong Kong-based biotech Insilico Medicine broke new barriers with its potential treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The milestone is emblematic of the AI focus in life sciences, which to-date has heavily skewed towards applying the technology across its research and development operations.

Making the drug discovery process quicker, and more effective in terms of patient outcomes, is a logical target, given the huge investments pharma and biotech companies make there. For companies like Insilico and some of their peers the focus is also one that’s paying off, with years shaved off traditional research timelines.

But, while it looks like there will be no shortage of AI progress for pharma and biotech R&D, the sector has had less experience with applying the technology within its commercial organisations. Now, with the rapid ascent of generative AI tools, this year is poised to be the turning point for commercial pharma organisations and artificial intelligence.

Summer reading: Death, women and data bias, medical discoveries, David Bowie and Patti Smith

Hastings beach

I’ve only briefly left my home county for a short summer holiday this year and will be resolutely staying in my own country for the foreseeable future, as life within the coronavirus pandemic continues.

This may be a summer quite unlike any other – complete with the UK’s air corridors, uncertain quarantine requirements and underpowered COVID tracing, but there’s still time for reading.

Following last summer’s reading list model, I’ve picked five books more or less related to my day job as an editor and writer in pharmaceutical publishing and another five that cover some of my other interests.

UK internet use hits record high during COVID-19 lockdown, shifting communication and media habits

Pic: Gabriel Benois on Unsplash

All those Zoom calls, sour dough tutorials and TikTok videos, not to mention a mass transition to working from home, are having an effect in the UK, where internet use has surged to record levels under lockdown.

New figures from Ofcom show that adults spend more than quarter of their waking day online, using the internet on average for four hours and two minutes a day in April, up from just under three and a half hours in September last year.

Digital independence? Children’s internet and social media use

Pic: Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

Children’s use of the internet is a minefield at the best of times. Are they spending too much time on – delete as appropriate – YouTube/Fortnite/TikTok/Snapchat/Minecraft? Are their mobile devices surgically attached to their faces?

New research from the UK’s media regulator confirms parents feel children’s online use now carries more risks than benefits as it brings some welcome new facts to the debate.

Ofcom’s Children’s Media Use and Attitudes report 2019 is based on some 3,500 interviews with children and parents, and it would seem the older generation’s fears aren’t entirely unjustified.

Social rules for the internet from Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Tim Berners-Lee has released a nine-point plan for governments, companies and citizens around the world to follow to protect the web as a force for good.

His new Contract for the Web aims to make the online world safe and empowering for everyone, beginning with a global right to full access to the web with affordable connectively and respect for the rights and freedoms of people online.