Medscape has launched a respiratory content alliance with Glaxo Wellcome.
Medscape, known as a provider of digital health records and online health content, has formed an agreement with Glaxo Wellcome to create asthma-specific web content and disease management tools on medscape.com and cbshealthwatch.com. Content will be tailored to patients and physicians, with the aim to increase asthma awareness and improved management.
The agreement enables Medscape to expand its respiratory channels on medscape.com and its asthma channels on cbshealthwatch.com. The CBS HealthWatch website will now feature four new ‘Asthma Health Zones’, including: ‘Asthma and Your Environment’, ‘Therapies for Asthma’, ‘Exercise and Asthma’ and ‘Children and Asthma’. The medscape.com site will feature a Glaxo-sponsored Asthma Resource Center, which will include asthma-specific journal articles, journal scans, MEDLINE searches, practice guidelines, conference summaries and treatment options. Glaxo will be the sole sponsor of the Asthma Resource Center and a partial sponsor of the CBS asthma channel. In addition to Glaxo branding, the websites will also feature prominent links to iBreathe.com, Glaxo’s proprietary website for asthma management.
The move is a good idea, as it will position the firm as an asthma resource both to consumers and physicians. Both of these groups at times resist visiting pharma company sites because of the perceived bias of their content. Glaxo’s positioning next to trusted resources like Medscape and MEDLINE will help lend credibility to the information on all the associated sites.
Since there are already 55 million American consumers looking for health information online, it will be increasingly important for pharma companies such as Glaxo to optimize their use of this channel. They must work continually to draw consumers to their own marketing materials, whether on their own product sites or via links with independent health content sites. These alternative sites will be especially important, because they allow new consumers unaware of specific product names to get hold of information. They can then be directed to the pharma companies’ own product sites.
