Why Life Science Firms are Avoiding WordPress Websites at All Costs

Biotech and life science firms are waking up to the fact that WordPress is a very precarious CMS platform to build their corporate and clinical trial websites on. These open-source type websites are being attacked and compromised daily. No matter what website design agencies may tell you, the performance is lacking and the security risk is simply too great...

View the 3 Top Biotech/Life Science website design best practices below to ensure your website is safe, compliant and maintenance free.

When it comes to building biotech and life science websites, there is no room for hedging that your site will not fall victim to the countless malware attacks on WordPress sites. Building a website on WordPress may be okay for a blog or a small B2B, but the stakes are too high when uptime and compliance are at stake. Your site going down or being compromised has ramifications with investors, patient recruitment, partners and your credibility. If that weren't enough, WordPress plugins can also get you into hot water for HIPPA and GDPR compliance issues which can derail your pipeline until the problems are settled with your legal counsel.

As one of the top-tier digital advertising agencies dedicated to the biotech space, Trial AMPlify stopped designing websites on WordPress years ago. 1) The corporate and clinical trial websites we build are developed on a closed-source CMS (content management system) platform, which makes them more secure. 2) As a life science centric advertising firm, we're obligated to take HIPPA, GDPR and cookie policies more seriously than most. 3) Finally, unlike WordPress websites, our sites are easier-to-edit, faster page loading and cost our biopharma clients zero to maintain.

View the 3 Top website best practices below to ensure your business and your science thrive:

Hosting and Compliance Best Practices for Biotech and Life Science Websites

a) Hosting your new website on Amazon AWS (considered to be the gold standard in hosting) ensures fast page loading and 99.99% uptime. 90% of the Top 10 global biopharma companies host on AWS. It's also important to ensure you have a global CDN and implement an SSL security certificate to ensure your website is even more secure. Stay away from web design agencies that encourage you to host on cheap, shared-server environments  such as WP Engine or GoDaddy.

b) The ability to eliminate the need for managing plugin licenses, monthly code updates and bug fix maintenance is a huge factor. This means your site costs zero to maintain moving forward. Because WordPress is an open-source platform, it requires constant upkeep and attention. WordPress sites use something called plugins to make the site function. These third-party built plugins need security updating constantly. You may be wondering, "do all these independent, third-party plugins play nice with one other?" The answer is No, not always... This is part of the reason why WordPress sites are so vulnerable to attack. One plugin update can compromise or take down the site. The fact that most plugins are free means the plugin developers have no skin in the game, and lack the oversight and monitoring required for security and compliance. A recipe for disaster.

c) Finally, let's review compliance, a critical component for biotech life science websites. AWS supports more security standards and compliance certifications than any other offering website hosting platform including HIPAA/HITECH, FedRAMP, GDPR and more. This is extremely important for biotech, life science and med device clients who are running clinical trial patient recruitment studies around the world.

"...making WordPress HIPAA compliant is complex. Ensuring a WordPress site is always HIPAA compliant is similarly difficult. There have also been many security issues with WordPress over the years and weaknesses are frequently identified. WordPress plugins are also frequently found to have weaknesses and there is considerable potential for those vulnerabilities to be targeted by hackers..."

"...the potential risks to ePHI are considerable. WordPress makes website creation simple, but not as far as HIPAA compliance is concerned. -- HIPPA Journal

So why do "other" web marketing agencies continue to build on WordPress?

The oldest reason in the world -- Money. What many biotech firms don't realize is that web design agencies build on WordPress to perpetuate ongoing maintenance. The unfortunate reality is, these firms make more money by keeping you in a CMS platform that requires more attention. If your site breaks, gets hacked or goes down, they're getting paid. This is why these same web design firms push yearly maintenance plan.

For life science and biotech firms looking to build their websites on modern, proven CMS technology, it's best to steer clear of PR and digital advertising agencies who build websites on WordPress. Fact is, WordPress is still the # 1 most hacked CMS platform in the world accounting for 90% of all website hacks. There are better website CMS alternatives that are more secure, compliant, easier to edit and maintenance free.