Drug Information Provided by Pharma Companies Often Too Complex, According to New Report by Cutting Edge Information

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--(Marketwire - August 12, 2009) - Despite heavy spending in patient education, adherence, and disease management efforts, campaigns are often ineffective because the material is too complex for patients to understand.

According to a new report from Cutting Edge Information, "Designing Patient Communications Programs," (http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/patient-communication) providing material that is overly dense or complicated causes pharmaceutical companies to miss their best opportunity to connect with their patients. For example, patients are less likely to recognize a symptom list as reflective of their own health problems and ask their physician if they might have an illness. In addition, many educational materials highlight the importance of refilling prescriptions as they run out and of taking medication as prescribed by a doctor -- these adherence messages will be overlooked or ignored if the patient cannot understand the potential consequences of skipping doses.

"Brand managers are sometimes more concerned with completeness than accessibility because of regulatory demands. As a result, many patients don't make it past the first paragraph before they stop reading a brochure," said Jason Richardson, president and CEO of Cutting Edge Information.

While pharmaceutical companies design patient programs to provide information to patients, patients are not the only beneficiaries.

"Doctors are not receiving pens and pads from physicians anymore, but they do appreciate the informational brochures that pharmaceutical companies provide if the content is unbranded and objective," says Jeremy Spivey, the report's lead author. "If the material leads to more questions than answers, however, physicians are unlikely to distribute it to patients, and drug companies will miss a key opportunity to improve their reputations among physicians."

In addition to guidelines on making information accessible, "Designing Patient Communications Programs" provides a complete breakdown of the communication programs of 27 pharmaceutical brands. The cost, development time and resources of 19 different tools are provided, along with the goals of each category of communication. These data, coupled with ROI measurements and best practices and industry trends in patient communications, provide a comprehensive picture of patient communications program design.

For a complimentary brochure of this report, visit http://www.cuttingedgeinformation.com/patient-communication.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Stephanie Swanson 919-433-0212