UK consultants to monitor blogs and forums
Link: UK consultants to monitor blogs and forums
UK consultancy firm Netrank is currently talking with several pharmaceuticals companies, including Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer, trying to sell them on the firm’s software meant to monitor internet forums and blogs to discover what people are saying about the drug makers’ products.
The software can find and identify thousands of messages per day that would be analyzed for positive and negative remarks that might have an effect on the drug companies’ public image.
Some, especially in the patients’ rights lobby, are concerned about how the information gathered by this service would ultimately be used. They are afraid that it could lead to the advertising of drugs directly to consumers, a practice which is currently illegal in Europe.
However, the head of Netrank says that the service his company is hoping to provide with the new software will allow companies to respond more quickly to the concerns of those using their products and thus is really in the best interest of patients.
He also points out that what even he calls “spying” would be making use of information that is already in the public domain.
