FDA Releases Proposed Social Media Guidelines

As social media has exploded throughout the years, pharmaceutical companies have largely strayed away from the new form of media. That’s because the FDA had not yet laid out clear guidelines for what kind of marketing and promotion was acceptable for drug companies to post on social networks. This past Tuesday, the FDA released the long awaited proposed guidelines for social media use by drug companies, as well as for correcting misinformation posted by others.

The FDA guidelines require that drug companies post not only the benefits of their drug products, but their risks as well—which would make it difficult to advertise via character space limited sites such as Twitter. However, this problem can be circumvented by using a hyperlink which directs readers to a detailed page.

The FDA created an example using a hypothetical memory loss drug named NoFocus. The FDA stated that the following would be an acceptable tweet: “NoFocus for mild to moderate memory loss; may cause seizures in patients with a seizure disorder www.nofocus.com/risk. In all social media posts, the drug producer must state the exact indication the product is approved for, which is why ‘No Focus’ had to explicitly state it was approved for “mild to moderate” memory loss instead of simply “memory loss.”

“For some products, particularly those with complex indications or extensive serious risks, character space limitations imposed by platform providers may not enable meaningful presentations of both benefit and risk,” stated the FDA. The FDA also said that it would be allowing drug companies to correct false or misleading information posted about their products online. The drug companies would not have to post full documentation of the drug’s risks and benefits as long as the correction is accurate. “The FDA does not intend to object if the corrective information does not satisfy otherwise applicable regulatory requirements regarding labeling or advertising,” the FDA stated.