Japan's melanoma market urged to ramp up social media activity

Companies were advised to include content providing emotional support for patients.

The melanoma therapeutics market in Japan is urged to strengthen its social media activity as well as its mobile app channels, where they were found to have weak presence compared to their website channels, according to a report from GlobalData.

The report noted that digital support for patients, made available through branded and unbranded channels, is not equally distributed as there is a lack of presence or weaker support from any of these channels.

A stronger social media presence would greatly help patients, according to GlobalData’s pharma analyst Venkat Kartheek Vale.

“Melanoma is a disease where patients need information on early signs and risk factors for self-identification of symptoms to undergo diagnosis and treatment and prevent disease progression to further stages,” he added.

Notably, Japan has a smaller number of incident cases of melanoma, but the recently launched immune therapies for the disease are expected to achieve higher growth due to unmet needs.

“Since emotional support plays a major role in fighting the advanced stage of disease, companies should also include content related to emotional support along with treatment and disease information to add more value to their digital channels,” Vale said.