What Pharma Needs To Learn From The Ice Bucket Challenge, Before It's Too Late

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

“Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” Those are the iconic words of baseball legend, Lou Gehrig, given in a farewell speech at Yankees Stadium some 75 years ago. Although Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which ended his professional baseball career, he still considered himself lucky. Likewise, I consider myself fortunate. I have not had to endure the pain and heartache of watching a loved one suffer with the ALS. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same when it comes to breast cancer — the second most common type of cancer experienced by women. I imagine this unfortunate fact would hold true for most of the people who participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (IBC), the social media fund-raising phenomenon which took the world by storm this past summer.  Statistically this stands to reason. Before the end of 2014, nearly 300,000 U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,000 women will die from the disease. According to the ALS Association, approximately 5,600 unfortunate souls in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS on an annual basis. While these numbers are tragic, the reality is twice as many Americans will die (600,000) from heart disease this year than ALS, breast cancer, COPD, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and prostate cancer combined!

Can Pharma Capitalize On America’s Love For The Underdog?

America has an enduring love to root for the underdog, and I think it has been fascinating to watch how the ice bucket challenge united people in support of ALS — a decided underdog of the disease world. It made me wonder how the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, presently the biggest and most innovative in the world and thus, a decided favorite, could convince the American public as to the importance of supporting and building upon our leadership position now, instead of waiting for other nations to put us in the position of being the pharmaceutical industry underdog. But that approach has already been tried, and with results we should have expected. Much like a parent lecturing a teenager, the eyes of America glaze over when BIO and PhRMA produce reports and preach about the importance of our industries to the U.S. economy. Because the United States has such a position of strength, these reports not only fail to tap into America’s love for the underdog, but only serve to galvanize our citizenry against us. In my opinion, the biopharmaceutical industry needs to take a different tack other than telling the American people to, “Do something before it is too late,” before it really is too late. My suggestion — let’s tap into America’s love for supporting the underdog. Here’s how.

Positioning The U.S. Biopharmaceutical Industry As An Underdog

The first step toward creating the perception of the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry as an underdog requires finding other countries or regions to target and position as rivals. China, the EU, and Japan are the most likely candidates. Step two is to conduct research in those areas to uncover where the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry is either losing or can be positioned as losing. Step three is to publish these research findings, being sure to focus on the negative, because after all, people tend to remember a negative more than a positive. Want to get America’s attention? Stop telling them what a great job we are doing and how important we are. Instead, start telling them what an underdog we are. Step four is to build a coalition of organizations and businesses that can help share all the positive things the biopharmaceutical industry is doing (e.g., PhRMA’s databases of profiles, reports and press releases). Though America loves an underdog, I am of the opinion we have a greater affinity for helping an underdog that is lovable. The best way to improve the image of the biopharmaceutical industry is to get others outside our industry to promote what a great job we are doing. But don’t expect the press to publish these positive feelings. We already know they want to focus on the negative right? This is where social media plays such a pivotal role. If you can get people rallied behind supporting this cause in social media, it can become a trend and raise awareness. Remember, the ALS ice bucket challenge took off because everyone but the ALS Association was promoting this underdog disease.