The industry that prides itself on being at the cutting edge of biomedical research is at the back end when it comes to adopting mobile technology for healthcare professionals and patients.
Only 33 percent of all healthcare pharma applications are mobilized. What's more, 45 percent of healthcare pharma websites on the market for less than five years are mobile-optimized, but only 28 percent of those older than five years are mobilized, according to a 2014 study by Manhattan Research, a division of the Decision Resources Group.
While healthcare professionals will use pharma sites that make mobile access seamless, the repercussions for the laggards could be serious. Companies like Medscape Mobile Manor Health and many insurers, in fact, are thinking "mobile first," said Monique Levy, vice president at the Decision Resources Group. Pharma, on the other hand, is only hurting itself.
"They lose opportunities," Levy said. "In today's market where physicians are so pressured by drug choices, pharma needs every shot it can get for physicians prescribing their drug."
One example brings the point home. If a physician looking at a formulary can see a co-pay on one site but not the other, that second company will lose the sale.
At the same time, the idea that a pharma company can build an exclusive application for its brand and become the go-to brand for physicians is unrealistic, said Mark Bard, CEO of Digital Insights Group, a market research firm for the healthcare industry. The average physician, he notes, keeps a maximum of four healthcare apps on their mobile device.
There is no single answer as to why pharma lags. Of the top 75 pharmaceutical brands, two-thirds have not optimized for mobile, according to the non-profit Digital Health Coalition.
One reason may be that the more conservative pharma companies know there is still a lot to be learned about what physicians want on a web site, said Bard.
He breaks down adoption of mobile by pharma into three categories: Those who have a one- or two-year strategy to mobilize (keeping in mind that they still need to play with whatever new devices come along in the next six months to a year); and those who say they are not getting much traffic, so why upgrade?
Perhaps the last group, as their traffic dwindles, will take the hint.
Pharma, however, has its own set of issues when it comes to mobilizing. Today's solutions are ignoring so-called "fair balance," how pharma presents the risks on their sites. The FDA regulates user content. Any time a product name is mentioned it requires companies to list all of the risks.
These can be presented in many different ways - a scrolling interface, for example, may go on for three pages. And no one knows for sure if that should be at the end or at the beginning of the site.
There is also the constant battle between creative and what Bard called the "department of no" -- legal counsel.
Besides the legal ramifications of compliance and FDA regulations, there are financial considerations that come into play, according to Lars Kurkinen, a senior analyst at Berg Insight. In many cases, he said, digital therapies can be used as a substitute for a drug. mHealth or connected healthcare can represent both an opportunity for expansion and an "existential threat."
"You can imagine how mHealth projects get killed inside the pharma company when the mHealth team presents a solution that allows patients to use less medicines for managing their disease. Cannibalizing your core business is not good for the bottom line, at least in the short term," Kurkinen said. "In the long term it may be necessary. But it is very painful to make these decisions and you can imagine how shareholders might react."
Nevertheless, companies like Merck, Janssen and Boehringer Ingelheim are examples of pharma organizations looking to go beyond selling pills and traditional therapeutics and experimenting with mobile health, noted Jennifer Lazar, Frost & Sullivan Life Sciences and Connected Health global program director. Natasha Gulati, the firm's connected health industry manager, concurs, saying that pharma's end goal is to become more patient-centric and find new and innovative ways to reach customers.
The conclusion among most analysts is that pharma's lackluster entry into mobile will not hold back the rest of the industry -- and while pharma is a bit behind the curve when it comes to mobilization, it isn't from ignorance but due, in many cases, to the unique challenges that these companies face.