SXSW 2012

As more and more patients begin using social media as an information source and a support network, it's inevitable that they'll begin to interact with representatives of pharmaceutical companies looking to use new technologies to inform and educate. While consumer-industry interactions are not new -- Comcast crawls Twitter for those in need of tech support, and Gatorade sends electronic high-fives to high school athletes -- links between drug companies and those they serve are more fraught, with some patients celebrating dialogue and others warning that such relationships are intrinsically inappropriate. This panel -- including patients, advocates and industry -- will explore the ground rules of "friending" big pharma and the ground rules that biopharma firms must play by to ensure patients aren't taken advantage of.