Biogen Launches PsoriasisSupport.com 
from Eric K.

Ed:  I am a Marketing Director for Biogen, a biopharmaceutical company with a product currently under review with the FDA.  Since we're under review with the FDA, I have to adhere to regulatory guidelines that prohibit me from mentioning the product — but judging from your website comments, I'm fairly certain you know what we're talking about!

I have been a long-distance admirer of your site for the last year or so.  It has been a great source of information to us as we've tried to understand the physical and emotional mindset of psoriatics.  We certainly have a great deal more learning to do, but FlakeHQ has truly been a great help!

I wanted to let you know that Biogen just launched a psoriasis disease education site called www.PsoriasisSupport.com.  This site marks an important first step as we begin to forge a relationship between Biogen and psoriasis patients. This U.S. site will be followed by launches in four European countries: France, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden.  We will issue a press release announcing the site and begin site advertising next week.  I just wanted to give you an advance "heads up" so you could check it out if you were so inclined.

The content of PsoriasisSupport.com is arranged in categories:

About Psoriasis — individuals can find information about psoriasis, the causes and types of psoriasis, the science behind the disease, the role of immunology, future biologic treatment options, and the most recent news on the disease.

Living with Psoriasis — visitors can get advice from experts, submit their questions, and read recent articles and helpful tips on psoriasis.

Community — people with psoriasis also have the opportunity to participate in a supportive community by joining a message board and exchanging information with others, sharing experiences, and making new friends. 

Resources — visitors can also access a list of associations, resources, support groups, and a current events calendar to find out what's going on in their community.

PsoriasisSupport.com assures all users privacy and confidentiality.  

Visitors can access all of the site information by becoming a member.  You'll see that we're offering a free copy of the NPF's book The Best of It Works for Me to encourage membership.   The site also offers links to psoriasis.org and includes a significant amount of National Psoriasis Foundation content.... –Eric K.

*****

Ed’s Response:  I went there, I checked it out, I am impressed.  As far as pure information goes, “PsoriasisSupport” has more and appears — to me at least — to be better organized than “Psoria-Sense” (the Roche pharmaceutical site).

By the way, Biogen’s contribution to new P treatments is Amevive (a.k.a. alefacept) — see in the Archives, from March 2002’s email, Flaker Friend at Biogen. A new biologic treatment shortly to be unleashed upon the flaking public.  For more about Amevive, check out these links:

http://www.biogen.com/site/content/releases/pressrelease_subpage_156.asp

http://www.biogen.com/site/content/products_pipeline.asp?product=AMEVIVE#content

http://www.psoriasis.org/d300.htm#so01b  (this one’s the best)

It’s interesting that this is the second web P-site to be sponsored by a commercial pharmaceutical firm (though Biogen, as Eric points out, likes to think of itself as a biopharmaceutical company — its products are derived from genetic engineering rather than traditional chemistry).  Perhaps word’s out that flakers are highly web savvy.  (Are we?)  We do turn to the web for in-depth information about our ailment, and one doesn’t have to browse long to get the idea that flaking cybernauts print this stuff out and accost their derms with it.  And that can’t hurt companies like Roche and Biogen who need derms to prescribe their stuff.  If all the scammers, fly-by-nights and snake oil salespeople can reach us through their web sites — they can, and do — I’m just tickled to death sites like PsoriasisSupport will crop up in the same web searches.  Quick example.  Go here and just peruse the home page:

http://www.psoriasis.com

Now go here and do the same thing:

http://www.psoriasissupport.com

Which site do you find more compelling? 

But let’s not forget Eric’s crediting NPF (National Psoriasis Foundation) in his email, above.  Its in the last paragraph reproduced before my response.  There is lots of redundancy between their sites.  My take on it?  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Once again my favorite organization should feel flattered.  -Ed

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