Pecha kucha

Discovered too late I had to do a Pecha Kucha

Had to find something quick and hurry up mucha

In fact for a while now I’ve been meaning to express

My thoughts on our industry, talk about our progress

Our achievements and efforts- Something different, you know,

Not the usual stuff about our reputation being low

But I had a big problem, I was afraid you would laugh

Tell me it’s all about money and increasing earnings by half

I had another problem that was even bigger

I’m no good with time and thus you’d snigger

As I get all tangled up in my words and my thoughts:

The slides would advance, my tongue be tied in knots

So I decided to use music, English rythm and rhyme

Which being German is crazy, but it’ll keep me on time

I would thus like to tell you though I don’t know a lot

About how patients have changed while you have not

I would also like you to carefully listen

To what pharma is doing well without any suspicion

Pharma produces medicines that can save people’s lives

Drugs that help children and their mothers survive

It researches cures for diseases like cancer

And funky stuff like Endothelial nitric oxide enhancer

So why is it that, despite these advances

Pharma’s reputation never enhances

Well, I believe it’s because if we’d saw a sushi dish

We’d refer to it as 250 gramms of cold dead fish

It’s this cynical vision that if we’d open our heart

We’d only reap criticism, be torn apart

Yet patients today want care and connection

They demand information but also support and affections

They will search for the answers and are not afraid to ask

and you can help them with this incredible task

“We are not allowed to, our hands are tied

We would love to, believe us, we tried”

But our lawyers wont’t let us “, you’ll say

And point your fingers to the FDA

Yet there is no single rule, nor any regulations

That forces you to be dull in your communications

In fact Boehringer just launched a new game on faeebook

that allows people to understand pharma’s outlook

You can set up your laboratory and develop new drugs

Against some of the world’s most potent drugs.

Then all your experiments explode and you lose all your money

Which, at least in the game, is really funny

We also need to involve patients from the start

Phase I through Phase IV have the patient at heart

We need to learn how to reach out and crowd source

Because if we don’t, it’s the patients that will have us outsourced

Boehringer, again adopted this mission

By asking everyone for their submission

Of ideas to drive awareness on stroke prevention

Which brought them new solutions and media attention

Physicans also need our help and assistance

A lot of them suffer from social media resistance

They are skeptical and often afraid

Overwhelmed by this information in which they have no fate

Pharma can help them overcome their fears

By connection patients to physicians and physicians to their peers

This is what Pfizer in the UK has done

Their Monday opportunity to talk is not only fun

it allows men to talk to doctors anonymously

which in this specific condition can be key

So: Stop, collaborate and listen

Because patients are on a brand new mission

You can say all the right things but still show your affection

For the patients that need to feel your connection

Yet it starts with something very basic

You have to STOP what you’ve been doing sofar – let’s face it!

It is time: Social media reaches millions of patients each day

And you have to be there to assist them along the way

It is time to put quality health information

In the hands of engaged and empowered patients.

Pharma and social media got off to a bumpy start

But for patients its been a love affaire that will not tear apart

So now is the time for pharma take off to the social media sky

Time to take concrete steps and to learn how to fly