This particular funding story is a sign of the times - social networks are becoming ubiquitous. TargetRX, it was reported today at Venture Capital Update, landed a $9.6 million additional funding round from Quaker BioVentures, New Enterprise Associates and Comain Associates.
It clearly isn't a Web 2.0 looking site, and when I checked it out to do a cursory overview of it, in reading the descriptions it almost started to sound like one of those sites that calls itself a social network to get a certain kind of press, when it's actually a catalog or a thinly veiled site shilling a product. The first line in their description is what threw me: "TargetRx offers member physicians an online forum to share their attitudes and beliefs with pharmaceutical companies through surveys and other market research activities."
Typically, when I hear the words "pharmaceutical companies," the words conjured in my mind aren't attitudes and beliefs - so it smelled a bit like marketing at first.
It would appear, though, that this is a legitimate social network, one that while is a business model that benefits the pharmaceutical companies with opinion research data, is more about connecting doctors with one another and fostering legitimate medical research into treatment methods with new and existing medications.
I use the qualifier 'appear' in that sentence, though, since I'm not a doctor with a DEA number, and there's a strict identity screening process to become a member of the site.