Of robots and pharma …

The main reason for doing this blog is to offer a way for folks to quickly access a whole bunch of items scattered across all different blogs. But some days, I may want to cut loose a little and offer my own view of various corners of the Internet. It’s a big weird world online, and some trends are just worth noting, even if at first glance they seem to have nothing to do with pharma.

Mad scientists of the 21st century

No, I am not talking about pharmaceutical researchers. I’m talking about a group of hobbyists and professionals whose work has been given an outlet by the power of the Internet: robot builders. A brief cruise of YouTube brings to light mechanical creations in all of their crawling, hopping, slithering, running glory. From kids in basement workshops to college labs to leaders such as Boston Dynamics, all are using YouTube videos to tout their skills in turning inanimate plastic and metal to pseudo-life.

My husband, the graphic artist/geek, brought these types of videos to my attention. Watching the Big Dog, for example, makes you wonder about the future of warfare and the future of commerce, because these creations are designed to haul stuff into areas where wheeled vehicles can’t go. A newer video in March shows the Big Dog negotiating ice and snow. The technology is awesome, and another reminder of how sci-fi dreams of the past are today’s reality.

Carnegie Mellon University has one of the most advanced robotics programs in academia. Watch this snake robot in action and wonder how the technology could be applied. At Cornell University, they are working on self-repairing and replicating robots. And at Essex University in the United Kingdom, folks there have come up with a robotic fish.

In Japan, robot design and building has been a popular hobby for years. Contests give people a place to show off creations such as this real-life Transformer. Another transformer ‘bot can be seen smacking around some bottles of fruit juice here. This little guy can skate and is programmed through a cell phone.

Sony and Honda have been developing robots for a long time, as well as some other Japanese companies. Check out Sony’s dancing robots. Honda’s famous Asimo robot can now run. And there’s Murata Boy, the bicycle-riding robot, from Murata Manufacturing Co.

Some of the most interesting robot videos I have seen recently have come from a young U.S. animator and model maker named I-Wei Huang. At his site, he shows off his “swash” robots and his steam-powered creations, taking the time during his videos to tell the viewer how the robots are constructed.

Then there’s pharma on YouTube … Zzzzzzzzz

OK, maybe it’s unfair to compare the official videos pharma companies are doing with those done by the robotics enthusiasts. A lot of pharmaceutical DTC spots can be found on YouTube, put up by the companies themselves or others. But companies are afraid of the interactive nature of the Web, for many reasons, and have been slow about taking advantage of the medium

Still, some companies are making some sort of effort. A search for AstraZeneca turned up Artery Explorer, an educational video that shows what happens to the arteries in atherosclerosis. For patients who still think of their atherosclerosis in abstract terms, actually seeing what happens when the gunk in their arteries runs amok can make them better understand the need for treatment.

More entertaining is the winner of Novartis’ FluFlix contest in 2007, which shows how to prevent flu outbreaks in the workplace. There were about 60 FluFlix entries, which can all be found here.

Still, most of the pharma videos fall into the “boring but inoffensive” category, such as Pfizer’s promotional piece for the “Mobilize Against Malaria” outreach program; Genentech’s video for the “Heroes of Hope” program, which acknowledges the accomplishments of people living with cystic fibrosis; and Schering-Plough’s video about the approval of the company’s fungal medicine Noxafil, which sticks with the tried-and-true pharma formula – talking heads and shots of patients.

Pharma companies should be paying attention to YouTube for other reasons as well. For example, this is touted as a GlaxoSmithKline corporate video, but it’s clearly older – the company is repeatedly referred to as Glaxo Wellcome, and Timothy Tyson is listed as “senior VP and director, WM&S.” Mr. Tyson had left GlaxoSmithKline back in 2002 (by that time, he was president, global manufacturing and supply, and the company was officially GlaxoSmithKline) to become president and chief operating officer for ICN Pharmaceuticals. (ICN eventually became Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Mr. Tyson became CEO; he left that company in 2008.)

And Pfizer apparently sponsored a fashion show, an activity that one of the company’s stockholders commented angrily on.

Mostly what you get when you do a YouTube search of pharma companies, however, are lots and lots of spoof videos and diatribes against the pharmaceutical industry, and sales training videos.

The point is, pharma could be doing a whole lot more on the Internet, in the most easily accessible medium, online video, to educate the masses. And seeing some of the criticism against the pharma industry on YouTube now, companies should be doing something now, not later.