No fewer than 92 percent of Korean doctors think pharmaceutical companies’ digital marketing activities enhanced in the non-contract era help them prescribe drugs, according to a survey.
The largest number of respondents selected Daewoong Pharmaceutical as the drugmaker that conducts digital marketing most effectively.
InterMD, a knowledge- and information-sharing service for physicians, conducted an opinion poll on 1,000 doctors concerning their online marketing activities using portals exclusively for MDs and released its results on Tuesday. The survey aimed to know how doctors use and evaluate pharmaceutical firms’ digital marketing this year.
Responding to the opinion poll conducted from Nov. 10-14, 91.7 percent of physicians said that pharmaceutical companies’ digital marketing activities positively influenced their drug prescription, the survey results showed.
Among the respondents who said yes, 42.8 percent said digital marketing is useful for obtaining information on new drugs, and 30.3 percent replied it helped them win additional information about existing drugs they prescribed. The other 21.7 percent said it helped them get themes and information suiting their specialties, while the remaining 5.2 percent gave replies different from above.
The largest number of respondents (15.7 percent) picked Daewoong as the best digital marketer among the domestic drugmakers, followed by Hanmi Pharm (14.4 percent), Viatris (8.65 percent), JW Pharmaceutical (7.8 percent) and Boryung Corp. (7.1 percent).
Concerning digital marketing methods, 41.5 percent of doctors said they obtain information through online academic conferences, and 26.8 percent do so through portals exclusively for physicians.
As disappointing parts of the doctor-only portals, respondents cited the shortage of academic content in their areas of interest, old information focusing on specific drugs without updating, and the lack of community reinvigoration. Areas that they wanted to be reinforced included the latest lecture review service and summary, contents on various treatments and diseases, and the latest guidelines and cautions regarding drug use.
“Pharmaceutical companies’ competition has been intensifying since the outbreak of Covid-19, making it necessary to set up digital marketing strategies with firm directions and continuous communication based on it,” said CEO Lee Young-do of InterMD. “To this end, drugmakers should rack their brain to devise diverse methods, including introducing various tech-based marketing tools, upgrading existing digital marketing methods, conducting data-based target marketing, and providing user-based diversified content.”
InterMD is a portal for physicians where members question and answer various themes, such as treatment, diagnosis, tax, and labor affairs, in real name. Based on the Q&A service, members can share various information, including the latest foreign medical paper reviews, information on diverse diseases and drugs, and healthcare-related legal and labor information.
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