The Tweet Heard Around the Biotechnology World

On September 21, 2015, Hillary Clinton sent a tweet that reportedly sent shortwaves across the biotechnology industry, sending the biotech ETF (IBB) down 5% over the course of one day. As someone who closely follows the healthcare space, I noticed the tweet being re-posted on news outlets that day. What made this post so viral and effective? What allowed it to catch on and gain traction? It was concise, timely, and had a special personal touch, signed “-H”. However, I am not really sure you can give Clinton all of the credit. Let me walk through the events leading up to the tweet and analyze what I believe made Clinton’s tweet so powerful.

Backdrop to the pricing debate

In recent years, drug pricing has been a hot button issue across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. For instance, Congress demanded that Gilead, a biotechnology company, appear at a congressional hearing to justify the $84,000 price tag on their hepatitis C drug Solvaldi. In 2012 doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center wrote an op-ed in the New York Times stating, “we recently made a decision that should have been a no-brainer: we are not going to give a phenomenally expensive new cancer drug to our patients.” These doctors were referring to the drug Zaltrap. Just a few months later, the drug manufacturer collapsed under the pressure and started offering around 50% discounts on Zaltrap. This is an important backdrop to understand leading up to the September 2015 viral post.

Story breaks on Turing Pharmaceuticals

On Sunday, September 20, 2015, with these tensions in the air around drug pricing, news outlets broke a story about Turing Pharmaceuticals. Turing what? Exactly. Most people had never heard of this small pharmaceutical company. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the drug Daraprim, standard of care for a life-threatening parasitic infection, in August and increased the $13.50 to $700 per tablet.

Clinton posts tweet on Monday morning

In reaction to this story, at 7:56 am the next day, Clinton posted the following tweet:

iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) closed down 5% at the end of Monday. CNN Money and Bloomberg report that Clinton’s tweet “crushes biotech stocks.”

What made the tweet so impactful?

Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, has a framework for why social media becomes viral. The framework is called the Berger’s STEPPS — social currency, triggers, emotions, public, practical value, and stories. Clinton tapped into the following parts of the framework:

· Emotional: She used the word “outrageous”, eliciting emotions from the reader in the negative direction. In social media, high emotional arousal either positive or negative motivates people to share.

· Triggers: Timing of the tweet was perfect. The news just broke the day before when people were at home with their families. The news of Turing Pharmaceuticals snow balled on Monday, and Clinton triggered the audience to think about the pricing issue even more.

· Practical value: She signed it “-H” as though she’s a close friend of yours. The informal nature of the tweet makes it seem more genuine than a public statement from her campaign. This makes people feel like they have some valuable information straight from the source. People want to share practical information, especially if it is before others are aware of it.

Was it really the tweet that had such a big impact on the market?

We definitely cannot determine cause and effect of the tweet on the stock market performance. There were many factors at play across the biotechnology companies. But I do believe another form of social media helped Clinton add fuel to her fire. This photo below:

This photo along with the tag line “Drug price raised over 5,000%” started spreading on Facebook and other social mediums. I actually saw this photo on my Facebook stream and immediately clicked. On Monday, this photo was spreading. It was so powerful because it hit on one of Berger’s key points in the framework, it was a visual story. It showed a young guy, cocky and seemingly no care for professionalism. This guy was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli. Now the public had a clear target to villainize in this story around drug pricing. Unfortunately for the biotechnology industry, this simple photo symbolized what some people viewed as a representation of the powerful pharma/biotech industry. Yes, Clinton’s tweet was timely and emotionally charged, but I would argue that Martin Shkreli himself played the biggest role in turning Clinton’s tweet viral.

Key learnings for social media

Reflecting on the nature of Clinton’s tweet and Shkreli’s photo, here are key points that can contribute to a post going viral:

1. Make the message emotional: Use emotionally charged words to elicit emotion either in a positive or negative direction. Complacence and neutral words limit engagement

2. Create a story to pull the audience in: Simple photos and personal stories connect to the reader and allow him/her to put a face to the message

3. Keep it short and memorable: Brevity is powerful. A simple tweet, header, and/or photo is key. When a reader is scrolling through Facebook, he/she does not have time to read long paragraphs. Take the time to think of clever phrasing and concise statements