GSK and Centocor Abandon Their Pioneering Corporate Drug Blogs

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Two companies who made early runs at corporate blogging — GlaxoSmithKline and Centocor – appear to have let their blogs die. The deaths were noted first by Pharma Marketing blogger John Mack.

GSK’s blog was for its weight-loss drug, Alli, and was called AlliConnect. The last post on that blog was on Sept. 3, 2008. BNET has previously noted management and tactic changes in the marketing of that drug.

Centocor, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, ran the CNTO411 blog. It often focused on health policy and Centocor’s non-profit efforts.

J&J isn’t completely out of the blogging game. JNJBTW is still going strong. Mack passed this view on the dead blogs:

It’s more of a personnel problem. A blog is a personal narrative and when the person leaves, the blog is dead in the water! This is exactly what happened to CNTO411 and alliConnect. Another case in point is Pharmalot, which will fade away without Ed Silverman.

The deceased publications also illustrate the historic difficulty Big Pharma has had in communicating to customers in a human — as opposed to corporate or medical — voice.

Tags: Blog, GSK, JNJBTW, Blogging, Internet, Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

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