YouTube seems to be the social media trend for Big Pharma so far this year. In the past week, both Sanofi-Aventis and AstraZeneca launched channels targeting specific diseases.
Sanofi’s , an unbranded effort that’s part of the “GoInsulin” campaign, personal stories of patients with diabetes and is the pharmaceutical company’s first YouTube venture. It does not mention Lantus, Sanofi’s insulin therapy; instead it offers general information about insulin.
AstraZeneca’s , considered the Symbicort brand channel, stories of patients affected by asthma. The company also launched a microsite, myasthmastory.com, although a spokesperson told PRWeek it is not part of a larger PR campaign for the asthma drug.
Mark Senak at Eye on FDA:
“Both of these efforts are breathtaking in that they appear deliberate attempts to break the stranglehold that regulatory concerns have had on social media in general and YouTube in particular. They also both go way beyond what anyone has accomplished so far in terms of creativity and style and in an effort to engage patients.”
The two pharma companies join Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Labs, and GlaxoSmithKline in the YouTube space.
