With more consumers going online for healthcare information, and millions of dollars in R&D at stake, it is critical that pharmaceutical companies take the necessary steps to ensure that health information seekers can find their brands online. We wanted to find out who was successful, and who was not.

Last year, we began a methodical analysis (see the process below) of how well the top five brands of the top eleven companies were ranking on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask. Some of these were Catalyst clients, and some were not, and the same is true today. In 2008 we continue to measure how well these pharma companies are doing in the race for the top positions.

Our results:

• The same four companies have kept their top scores since we began this analysis in January 2007: Novartis, Pfizer, GSK, and J&J.
• Novartis continues to lead the rankings with four out of five brands posting strong results on all search engines. Although it has the high score (1.72), there is room for improvement to reach the best-case scenario (7).
• Pfizer (1.02) is second with brands Lipitor, Lyrica and Viagra posting strong results.
• GSK (.89) is third with Advair and Avandia seeing good rankings.
• J&J (.62) has one strong brand, Topamax, that scores well to keep it in the top 4.
• The top three companies continue to break away from the pack with improved scores, while Johnson & Johnson (#4) dropped slightly.
• Merck wins most improved player award. After a year in 10^th place, the company has jumped from #10 to #5 on the strength of one brand’s results.
• Sanofi Aventis (#7) had the exact same score as Q4 ‘07.
• BMS and AstraZeneca improved slightly.
• Eli-Lilly dropped slightly.
• Wyeth continues to trail at #11, with almost no web presence at all for its top five brands. Only one of its top 5 brands appeared on the results pages, and that was with a third page position.

Observations:

The top five companies are investing in organic search and clearly the investment is paying off. It is not by chance they are at the top. They have clearly made a commitment to “closing the loop’ by having a strong online presence that mirrors their offline efforts. This long term marketing strategy will continue to serve them well as they capitalize on consumer interest generated by DTC campaigns.

Methodology:

We developed the methodology below, using data gathered from the most recent publicly available financial information.

· Compiled data between April 1 - 30, 2008

· Determined the top 11 pharmaceutical companies based on revenue

· Examined the top 5 brands based on revenue

· Searched four keyphrases for each brand: “[indication]” and “[indication] treatment” and “[indication] medication” and “[indication] symptoms”

· Recorded each brand’s website rankings for each keyphrase on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask

· Assigned each ranking a point value based on Search Ranking Score: Top 5 Ranking = 15 points;?First Page Ranking = 10?points; Second Page Ranking = 3?points; Third Page Ranking = 1?point; Not Listed on First Three Pages = 0 points

· Identified each search engine’s market share based on comScore March 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

· Calculated each company’s index score using Index = (Search Ranking Score * Search Engine Market Share)/11

· A perfect score = 7.0

As a reminder, Catalyst (that’s us) is a search marketing agency with pharmaceutical clients. You can find more about What We Do and who Our Clients are by reviewing our website. Some of the companies covered in this analysis report are clients of ours and some are not.

We do this analysis because it’s interesting to us. We hope it is interesting to you too. We’re applying basic search marketing analysis to brands that exist in the highly competitive and intensely regulated pharmaceutical industry. If you follow our methodology you just may come up with the exact same results. Then again, because it’s SEO and we’re dealing with the dynamics of search engines, you may produce different results. Welcome to our world. Our goal with this quarterly analysis, as with most SEO campaigns, is to measure which pharma companies obtain valuable marketing real estate and then sustain those rankings over an extended period of time. Here are our Q3-2007 results.

Happy Holidays!

As a reminder, Catalyst (that’s us) is a search marketing agency with pharmaceutical clients. You can find more about What We Do and who Our Clients are by reviewing our website. Several of the companies covered in this analysis report are clients of ours. Several are not. Sometimes one or more of the company’s top five revenue producing brands (see methodology at end of post) included in determining the company’s overall SEO rank are or have been clients of ours. Sometimes none of the top five brands are clients of ours. You get the idea.

We do this analysis because it’s interesting to us. We hope it is interesting to you too. We’re applying basic search marketing analysis to brands that exist in the highly competitive and intensely regulated pharmaceutical industry. If you follow our methodology you just may come up with the exact same results. Then again, because its’s SEO and we’re dealing with the dynamics of search engines, you may produce different results. Welcome to our world. Our goal with this quarterly analysis, as with most SEO campaigns, is to measure which pharma companies obtain valuable marketing real estate and then sustain those rankings over an extended period of time. Here are our Q2-2007 results.

Catalyst Observations:

• Although it appears Novartis is producing superior SEO rankings, keep in mind that a perfect score is a 6.0. There is plenty of SEO opportunity for even the leaders.
• As Boehinger Ingelhem (BI), as a company, exceeded growth expectations, as did its Q2 SEO rankings. BI experienced the greatest leap in SEO rankings from Q1. It will be interesting to see if they will maintain the progress over the next few quarters. From a search perspective it appears they are investing in brands like Flomax to lead their search marketing charge.
• BMS experienced an SEO rankings bump primarily due to their top producing schizophrenia drug, Abilify. We’ll keep an eye on BMS brands to see if they continue progress across the board in their SEO strategy.
• There has been some industry buzz about AstraZeneca refocusing advertising and marketing budgets to the online world. With popular drugs like Nexium and Crestor nearly non-existent from an SEO perspective, we’re glad that they at least acknowledge the internet.
• As for Merck and Wyeth, we just don’t know. Anybody??

As always, please share you comments and observations. We’ll always respond to your questions, concerns and inquiries.

Methodology:
Using the simple, yet time consuming methodology below, gleaned from the most recent publicly available financial information, you too could produce similar results.

1. Data compiled between April 1 and June 30, 2007
2. Examined top 5 brands based on revenue from most recent financial statements provided by each company
3. Searched 4 keyphrases for each brand:”[indication]” and “[indication] treatment” and “[indication] medication” and “[indication] symptoms”
4. Recorded brand’s website rankings per each keyphrase on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask and scored by defined Search Ranking Score (below)
5. Applied the formula Index = (search ranking score*search engine market share)/11
6. A perfect score = 6.0

Search Ranking Score:
Top 5 Rankings = 15
First Page Ranking = 10
Second Page Ranking = 3
Third Page Ranking = 1
Not Listed on First Three Pages = 0

Rather than belabor the point, let’s get to the rankings. You will find the methodology at the very end of this posting, and I’m looking to hear from people on what they think the numbers say, suggestions for next quarter, and more!

Methodology:

1. Data compiled between January 1 and March 31, 2007
2. Examined top 5 brands from top pharmaceutical companies based on 2006 revenue sales reported by company financial statements
3. Searched 4 keyphrases for each brand:”[indication]” and “[indication] treatment” and “[indication] medication” and “[indication] symptoms”
4. Recorded brand’s website rankings and scored by defined Index (below)

Index:
Index = (search ranking value*search market share)/11

Index Scoring System
Top 5 Rankings = 15
First Page Ranking = 10
Second Page Ranking = 3
Third Page Ranking = 1
Not Listed on First Three Pages = 0

[Update: It has come to our attention that there may be a little confusion regarding our Pharma SEO Analysis, and we’d like to address it here. Catalyst (that’s us) is a Healthcare Search Marketing agency with Pharmaceutical clients. You can find more about What We Do and who Our Clients are by reviewing our website. Using the simple methodology above, which was gleaned from publicly available financial information, anyone could arrive at these same results. Please continue to provide us with your comments and feedback. We’ll always respond to your questions, concerns and inquiries. ]