Top Pharma News in January 2023
The Ethical and Legal Concerns of ChatGPT Strike the Pharma Industry
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful, volatile and resourceful sectors of the global economic environment. With an emphasis on quality manufacturing, affordability of drugs, and innovation and technology, the new year kick-started with a mix-up of positive and negative outlooks for the pharmaceutical industry. This industry clearly impacts society and defines the state of healthcare systems. The following stories were identified by our Fullintel Hub, a powerful online tool that allows users to find trending/popular content in various media channels with metrics, including reach, sentiment and trending score.
Coverage surrounding the industry over the last month featured the following popular topics:
- ChatGPT experiments in mental health tech startup raise ethical and legal concerns
- Elon Musk to release the “Fauci files”
- China upholds its COVID response over WHO’s statement
A Break-Down of January’s Top Stories:
ChatGPT experiments in mental health tech startup raise ethical and legal concerns
While ChatGPT’s mental health start-up experiment trended online, China’s response about COVID control over WHO’s statement drove social engagement.
The coverage from top-tier outlets and trade publications on the pharmaceutical industry featured a number of minor news topics last month. However, the top three stories trended in the coverage despite impacting a smaller audience. These debatable stories drove the largest number of social engagements and accounted for a combined 4.49% of coverage in the pharmaceutical industry.
A Break-Down of Recent Trending Stories:
ChatGPT experiments in mental health tech startup raise ethical and legal concerns
ChatGPT, a GPT-3 variant that creates human-like text based on prompts, is gaining attention on the global stage and across industries–the pharmaceutical industry is no exception. Koko, a free, not-for-profit mental health service that partners with online communities to identify and treat individuals at risk, employs artificial intelligence for experimenting with digital mental health care and clarifies ethical gray zones regarding the technology’s use. The Fullintel Hub recorded relevant attributes over the course of coverage, with most of them being neutral. The most dominant reaction by social media users was “anger” with fears around security and privacy. The story garnered 5% negative coverage as some public health and tech professionals complained about the experiment on Twitter, claiming it violated the informed consent law requiring users’ consent to participate in the experiment. The story received the highest trending score of five on January 5th, as ChatGPT coverage continues to trend across the board.
Elon Musk to release the “Fauci files”
Fullintel Hub tracked coverage surrounding Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk declaring to unveil the “Fauci files” within days in an attempt to assail Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who has been inspected for his COVID policies. In response to Musk’s recent “Fauci files” release, aimed at Dr. Anthony Fauci and the handling of COVID-19 by top medical experts, a political battle erupted on Twitter, causing various misconceptions among Twitter users and resulting in 14% negative coverage. While the news coverage is mostly neutral/negative, the dominant social reaction is surprisingly “laughter—further confirming the public’s increasing distrust as a result of misinformation. The story’s coverage reached a social engagement score of 15.6K, generating a high trending score of four on January 2nd.
China upholds its COVID response over WHO’s statement
China defended controlling its furious COVID-19 outburst after U.S. President Joe Biden stated concern, and the World Health Organization (WHO) said Beijing was under-reporting deaths caused by the virus. Fullintel Hub tracked the news surrounding this bubbling topic, and the share of coverage was neutral and negative in sentiment–more negative than the other topics this month. Social media reactions ranged including laughter, anger and surprise over the reply. China’s under-reporting of COVID deaths has been consistently criticized for political reasons, and China’s diplomatic strategy in revealing the Covid deaths has angered many people as it would hinder the overall Covid recuperation—driving the 20% negative coverage on this topic. This news received a peak trending score of 5 on January 4th.
