[lit-ideas] Re: Pharma Spies

  • From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 12:25:10 -0700

BTW, has anyone seen anything in the media about
> Viagra causing blindness?  I haven't.  I was wondering if anyone else has.

ck: Yup, top headlines this past weekend. It's big news locally as well as 
nationally.

> 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.

ck: I wasn't referring to "direct marketing," as you probably know, but to 
public perception, to which Congress is acutely attuned. Politicos have an 
easier time pushing through legislation when their constituents aren't 
opposed. This is how corporate government works to increase its wealth and 
power with minimal opposition.
Best,
Carol



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 6:34 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Pharma Spies


> 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...
>> >
>> >
>> >
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