The problem isn't so much in direct marketing, so to speak, but in how much access and influence pharma has in both Congress and the White House. Effectively, they write whatever legislation they want. I suspect, though, that they're not worried. BTW, has anyone seen anything in the media about Viagra causing blindness? I haven't. I was wondering if anyone else has. Imagine going blind from using Viagra and recovering a whopping $250,000, before attorneys' fees, for it. Nah, like I said, pharma isn't worried about a thing. > [Original Message] > From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: 6/1/2005 2:49:51 AM > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Pharma Spies > > Hi Marlena, > Why posit Big Pharma shutting down bloggers when it can use them instead? > By monitoring bloggers (et al), pharma's marketing gets valuable info for > its disinformational ad and PR campaigns. You know, find out what people are > complaining about and then pull a Bush--deny, deflect, and reframe the > argument, preferably before the people are screaming to major media. > > But perhaps I'm a tad cynical by now... > Best, > Carol > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 10:07 PM > Subject: [lit-ideas] Pharma Spies > > > > Hi, > > This is from the blog from the bioethics.net site...as we have discussed > > Big > > Pharma in the past, I thought it relevant. I suppose there will be even > > more people monitoring Our List. > > > > I had not heard of "i-reputation" ... is it a data-mining software of some > > sort? > > > > Wondering what sort of pay a Pharma Spy gets, > > Marlena (usually in Missouri) > > > > Bloggers: Be Afraid [of Pharma Spies] - Be Very Afraid > > > > Financial Times reports that leading pharmaceutical companies have figured > > out how to "'spy' on internet conversations about medicines, and they are > > going > > to be reading blogs. Already our server logs record dozens of hits a day > > from pharma companies (hey, works for me - read bioethics all day long, > > guys!), > > but the new software, called "i-reputation," is on a whole new scale, > > raising > > the ire of lots of folks in the Internet community. Tough to see why > > pharmaceutical folks reading blogs would be problematic, since after all > > blogs are > > public, but it is easy to see what the concentrated strength of > > pharmaceutical companies could do to suppress something that Big Pharma > > doesn't want to > > see in blogdom. > > Health bloggers have the capacity right now to operate under the radar > > screen > > of big corporations, or at least to do so to some degree, because the > > readership is a small and dedicated sampling of people who cannot get > > enough news, > > or who are looking for very specific information from Google (that latter > > group makes up roughly 75% of our readership, for example). But blogdom > > germinates ideas that eventually become threatening to powerful > > corporations and > > others with clout - and so the same technology that made blogs so > > accessible will > > now be reverse engineered to make blogs more vulnerable... > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html