Consumers to pharma: Let's be Facebook friends (or not)

Drugmakers often get a bad rap among consumers for questionable marketing practices and events like the Vioxx scandal. Yet a consumer survey shows that, at least in online circles, pharma isn't as unpopular as one might think. According to Manhattan Research's ePharma Consumer study, four out of 10 people want pharma groups to be active in online health communities, and only two out of 10 people surveyed believed that drugmakers should stay away from such forums. Those numbers could be enough to further embolden many drugmakers' efforts to attract audiences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Release