PRx Blog

FDA Dips Toes into Vast Social Media Pool

With many industry folks saying it’s about time, the FDA just announced that it’s holding a public hearing to discuss social media. For years and years, the FDA has not addressed Internet-specific marketing so this week’s news is a huge acknowledgement that the Internet, social media tools like podcasts, and micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter are changing the face of marketing and advertising.

The public hearing, scheduled for November 12 and 13 in Washington D.C., is open to all interested parties such as consumers, patients, caregivers, patient groups, manufacturers, healthcare professionals and marketing agencies to provide their comments of Internet promotion. Armed with this information, the FDA will then make policy decisions on the promotion of human and animal prescription drugs, biologics and medical devices using the Internet and social media tools.

As a healthcare PR agency, our clients grapple with these issues every day as they look for guidance on what is acceptable and what could potentially land them in hot water with the FDA. Take Twitter, for instance. With its popularity growing in leaps and bounds every day, companies want to join the bandwagon and reach legions of people, but what is acceptable to say? With Tweets limited to 140 characters, do companies need to ensure that they are providing a fair and balanced view of the product including side effects or contraindications? Is this possible in 140 characters or less? Do they have to resort to haiku?

Many of our medical PR clients have also started Facebook pages to push messages out to consumers, healthcare professionals as well as the community at large to engage them and interact with them to learn more about their experiences with our clients’ products. One of the biggest questions that regularly gets asked is what if someone posts a comment on the Wall about an off-label use or adverse reaction. Is the company obligated to notify the FDA and is there a timeframe where this must be done? This is another key question that the FDA will be likely looking to address.

As a healthcare PR agency, we are definitely more than interested in the public hearings and especially what happens as a result. I suspect that many of our clients will provide comments and ask questions about this important discussion that is finally being addressed by the FDA. It will be a long process though as written and electronic comments are being accepted until February 28, 2010. Stay tuned for updates!