To Tweet or Not to Tweet? FDA to hold hearing about the use of social media for pharma marketing
by Kristen L. Phiel, MS, Independent Medical Writer
The use of social media to market—well just about everything—is all the rage. Successful marketing plans now factor in all kinds of social media campaigns, from bulletin boards to blogs and YouTube to Twitter. With one major exception – healthcare marketing, especially for pharmaceutical and medical device prescription products.
Why no product tweets or YouTube videos from the makers of the latest cholesterol-lowering wonder drug or the product with the most staying power for sufferers of erectile dysfunction? Simple – fear.
Pharma and medical device companies have much to be wary of. These companies do not want to risk being caught in the wrong by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any money-hungry lawyers.
Just how scared are these companies? One recent report stated that only 2 drug and device companies maintain blogs and a handful more tweet, compared to 16% of Fortune 500 companies who maintain public blogs.
But the proverbial social media silence may soon be coming to an end, as the FDA announced its first step to tackle the use of the web and social media to market pharmaceutical and medical device products – two days of public hearings. The hearings to be held Nov. 12-13 are intended to help guide the FDA in making policy decisions on how the Internet and social media tools can be used to promote these products.
The notice on the Federal Register reads, “The continually evolving nature of the internet, including Web 2.0 and social-media tools, as well as their expansion to applications such as mobile technology, have raised questions and concerns over how to apply existing regulations to promotion in these newer media. FDA is evaluating how the statutory provisions, regulations, and policies concerning advertising and promotional labeling should be applied to product-related information on the Internet and newer technologies. Although the agency believes that many issues can be addressed through existing FDA regulations, special characteristics of Web 2.0 and other emerging technologies may require the agency to provide additional guidance to the industry on how the regulations should be applied.”
And more parties than the pharmaceutical and medical device companies are jockeying to be heard. While social media is only one marketing tool, no ad agency or PR firm wants to be caught out. Physicians, consumer groups and search engine operations all have a vested interest as well in the outcome of this debate.
While it may still be some time before the latest and greatest prescription products are tweeting away, you can find out the outcome of this hearing by visiting: http://www.regulations.gov approximately 30 days after the hearing.
