Healthcare marketers (especially in the US, but here as well) have struggled to adapt to new generation online marketing tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and websites, in the absence of regulatory guidelines for marketing in the new media space.
Exactly how do you provide the usual slab of “prescribing information” (often hundreds of words outlining the risks associated with a given remedy) in an environment such as Twitter (140 characters) or even Google Adwords (12 words)? Must any ‘fans’ of a pharmaceutical product provide written disclaimers before going viral with their endorsements?
Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold a two-day public hearing in November on how pharmaceutical companies use the web and social-media tools to market their products, the first step in establishing guidelines for drug makers in a Web 2.0 world.
“The 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,” the meeting notice advises.
Our own regulators in New Zealand will doubtless be watching, assessing the outcome and determining whether to amend NZ regulations. However we suspect that if there is any change here, it’ll be slow.
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