Thinking about why I work in Pharma...

People I encountered used to get this look on their faces when I told them that I worked for Pharma. Almost as though I was some previously unseen - but often theorised - species of giant, hissing, talking cockroach. You know that look... it's also the one you get on your own face when you find fresh dog shit on the bottom of your shoe. I suppose it was because of the negative rap given to Pharma in general... much like this graph:

I once described that graph out loud in a meeting when I was employed by a Big Pharma company, and my boss warned me to "never... do... that... again...".

This graph and that warning came back to me again when I was listening to a PodCast from Freakonomics, called "Do Boycotts Work?". As part of the PodCast, a theory was posited that boycotts cast negative shadows over a company, often creating negative reputational impacts. This was challenged by one of the interviewees who is a researcher involved in plant science and plant geneticsg. His point was that while he agreed politically with almost every point of other liberals, their anti-GMO and anti-Monsanto opinions didn't resonate with him. They didn't resonate to such a degree that he took a job with Monstanto because they were doing cutting edge work in his field. He does admit that he does not lead with, "Hi, I work for Monsanto..." because of the public negativity toward his current employer, but he is happy in his work.

What I found most interesting in his interview was when he stated, "... I don't think the company is doing anything evil. It's a large company that makes the same decisions any other large company would... The company's values are the values of a successful, large company, and they are not, uh, what the public perception might have you believe that they're out to rip off and destroy agriculture and farmers."

I am pretty sure that what follows, my statement of what Big Pharma can do, may be viewed as some to be the repetitions of some kind of cult member, or some kind of apologist... but honestly, chances are if you've read my work, or met me before, you're not putting me in that bucket... unless you're my brother-in-law... a Vegan...

That last statement of the interviewee, really resonated with me. When I work in, or with, Big Pharma employees, I find that almost all of them are good people... almost all of us are good people. We go to work for the specific purpose of earning a living by helping others. We're about four steps away from the actual patient, but we try to keep the fact that we're helping people in the forefront of our minds. I'm not speaking about CEOs, or others in the C-Suite. Even in that group, I've found more than half are dedicated to helping patients. Heck, some CEOs are even former drug researchers... former science nerds. This eye toward helping people is what still gets me up and running.

I scan social media data so that I can help my Big Pharma clients understand:

• what patients have to say about their lives
• what patients say about their treatment options
• when and how patients seek information about their disease and treatment
• how physicians behave in sharing information in social media channels
• what a physician's network looks like so we understand more about who that physician is
• what content can resonate in a patient or physician conversation
• where caregivers go to seek solace or a break from working with their loved ones
• what represents hope for patients, physicians, advocacy groups, or caregivers

A key objective of all of this work is to help my Big Pharma clients act like a contributor, and not like a loud huckster. And being a contributor includes being a trusted, reliable, less-biased, and "good actor" in their social media efforts.

Ultimately, Big Pharma will do whatever Big Pharma needs to do to generate the profits demanded by the financial markets. I'm not imagining a future when a company spends millions or billions to just give things away. Remember, "The company's values are the values of a successful, large company...". The hope that I have, yes I still am somewhat idealistic, is that as Big Pharma gets closer to patients, a little bit of understanding can be passed back and forth.

And maybe... just maybe... one day, Big Pharma will move above The Mafia.