Pharmaceutical firms ‘failing to embrace mobile communications’

Pharmaceutical companies are lagging behind many other industries in terms of their efforts to optimise their corporate websites for mobile devices.

Analysis carried out by PMLiVE has revealed that only two of the world's top ten pharmaceutical firms – Pfizer and Abbott – currently have a mobile version of their corporate .com website.

Among the other companies surveyed, it was found that many are currently lacking any mobile sites at all, while other have made their mobile content more sparse or difficult to find than the desktop equivalent.

This comes despite a recent report from comScore suggesting that mobile browsing will overtake traditional desktops and laptops by 2013, a transition that has already taken place in China.

Moreover, a study from the UK's Internet Advertising Bureau shows that consumers who visited mobile-optimised sites click on one-third more pages than those looking at non-optimised pages.

Last month, Boehringer Ingelheim – which does presently operate a mobile website – announced plans to further enhance its online presence with the launch of Syrum, the pharmaceutical industry's first social game.