Online portal offers social media networking tools to pharma SMEs
Social media networking seems to be picking up even among small and medium enterprises pharmaceutical firms. An Ahmedabad-based portal pharmaneed.com has thought of offering social networking platform for its registered users.
City-based mid-sized pharma firm West Coast Pharmaceuticals Ltd, recently launched a website pharmaneed.com as a solution for pharma companies and professionals to network amongst themselves. Parth Patel, chief executive officer of pharmaneed.com said that a special feature in the website is the social networking tool. " Pharmaceutical professionals can get their own Template Personal Website or webpage on pharmaneed through which they can blog, submit articles, advertise and promote their products," Patel added.
According to a report released by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics in January this year, with the role of social media rapidly expanding, nearly half of pharmaceutical manufacturers are now actively using this channel to engage with patients on healthcare-related topics.
The study -Engaging Patients through Social Media- found that among the top 50 pharmaceutical companies worldwide, nearly half actively participate in social media on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
When asked that how does a new entity like pharmaneed plan to compete with global players like Facebook which has over one billion users, Patel clarified, "As against registering on a Facebook or LinkedIn which has a much wider user base, we are offering design the social and promotional campaign along the parameters that the firms want. We are also charging a nominal annual fee for the service."
A Mumbai based analyst pointed out that several firms might actually opt to register on pharmaneed as it would offer them to connect with a relevant crowd, including not only buyers and patients but also professionals and traders. Patel said that while the website already has around 5,000 registered users within one and a half month's of its launch, of which 3,000 are SMEs, it has also attracted as many as 200 users from countries like China, South Africa, Korea among others. It targets to have at least 20,000 registered users by September this year. Patel is in talks with big pharma including multinationals to register on the website.
The IMS Institute study showed that 23 of the top 50 global pharmaceutical manufacturers have some level of healthcare related social media engagement.
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Online portal offers social media networking tools to pharma SMEs