Small companies turn to blogs	July 2008

Tolerx is the first company within the small biotechnology sector to introduce a corporate blog to its Website.

With the advent of online technologies, pharmaceutical marketing is changing form. Although still few in number, corporate blogs are becoming a popular medium for pharmaceutical marketers to share a company’s culture and discuss popular issues across the online medium. Despite the amount of time, commitment, and dedication it takes to write and maintain a corporate blog, Tolerx introduced a blog to add more color to the company’s Website and to become a trendsetter in the small biotechnology industry sector. After re-branding the company, Tolerx added “The Green Chair,” written by Douglas J. Ringler, cofounder, president, and CEO.

“We wanted to differentiate ourselves within the industry, and to be honest, the corporate blog was actually part of the pitch from our ad agency as a way to get across our culture at Tolerx,” says Jessica Snyder, senior manager, marketing, Tolerx (tolerrx.com).

According to Ms. Snyder, Tolerx’s blog is not a typical corporate blog and is not a two-way blog. “We have an e-mail address set up for comments that we’ll have to screen from a regulatory and legal standpoint,” Ms. Snyder told Med Ad News. “So far the topics have either followed milestones of the company or just discussed how we think our company is unique from a culture standpoint.”

According to Ms. Snyder, Tolerx’s CEO is mindful of what the blog publicly discloses.

“We don’t have any drugs on the market, we’re in development, so from a regulatory standpoint we have to be very careful,” Ms. Snyder says. “It is a great way to communicate with internal employees, with the outside world, looking at the people afflicted with the diseases that we’re working on, but we have to be careful about what we say.”

Tolerx managers hope the corporate blog is a way for people to become informed about the company by adding more color than a typical corporate press release. Tolerx’s lead product is being developed in new onset type 1 diabetes. Ms. Snyder says there are several employees that have children with type 1 diabetes, and this blog is another way to share information about the passionate work environment that exists at Tolerx.

“It’s just another way to communicate to the industry, as well as to be a leader,” Ms. Snyder says. “Not many other small biotech companies do this. We’re a 55-person company, so to be able to commit to doing something like this is a lot.”

Compared with other industries, the pharmaceutical industry is prone to more scrutiny as a result of industry regulations. The corporate blog at Tolerx, for example, has to be placed through a substantial review from a legal and regulatory standpoint.

“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback so far, so we’re excited about that,” Ms. Snyder told Med Ad News. “It’s a nice way to communicate. I don’t necessarily know if the small biotech industry will follow suit, but we hope that it’s trendsetting.”