Go Ahead, Pharma: Social Media Okay, says FDA
(Public Domain image of various drugs)
Big pharmaceuticals have been extraordinarily cautious when it comes to social media as a venue for reaching their customers. A quick search in Facebook yields groups set up primarily for employees, or fan pages that were set up because somebody was bored at work one day, but nothing of substance that I can point to as a solid business strategy for promoting themselves to a larger audience of potential customers. I was a little surprised by this, given the resources that pharmaceutical companies can leverage for expanding their online presence, and it’s not that the web has been completely devoid of any “Web 2.0″ presence of big pharma; Johnson & Johnson has a blog that they call “JNJ BTW,” for example, but it’s an exception rather than a rule and it seems that other grass root interest groups or organizations have taken the Social Media bull by the horns and left the big corporations that defined the industry in their wake.
I was doing an estimate for a law firm prospect for whom I suggested a blog as a good source for reaching out to customers. They were conservative in their response, citing possible legal issues of someone interpreting their blogging as unsolicited advice. I wondered if this concern about how consumers would interpret messages on social media sites could be extrapolated as the reason Pharmaceutical companies’ trepidation. In fact, my answer came last Friday in Online Media’s article, “FDA Official Tells Blogger That Pharma Social Media OK.”
The specific concern, for drug companies anyway, was the Food and Drug Amdinistration’s regulation of branded drugs and how messages of their safety and efficacy reach consumers. Shire Pharmaceuticals was scolded by the FDA because of a promotional video they posted on YouTube in September focused on their ADHD treatment Adderall XR. The FDA’s rejection, however, stemmed from the fact that the video overstated the drug’s efficacy and neglected to mention what the agency deemed important risk information. The YouTube medium as a delivery method for the information was never questioned.
It’s clear from the article that the FDA realizes that social media is here to stay and will become only more present as a vehicle for delivering messages to consumers, so it makes sense to allow companies to develop acceptable methods for using it now so as not to miss an opportunity. They also recognize that more clearly defined standards will have to be defined and accepted before a company might move forward with a campaign. Specifically, the legal departments were cited as the areas of companies that would have to be most comfortable with any new customer outreach moving forward.
Another snag that could cause pharmaceuticals to take a “wait and see” approach will be the new policies on direct-to-consumer advertising that President Barack Obama’s new administration will enact moving forward. Though no new laws have been formulated since he took office, President Obama’s health care platform did include regulation of direct-to-consumer advertising, which would probably be inclusive of social media in all forms.
Though I can understand why large companies might be interested in using social media for consumer outreach, I never quite understood the appeal of advertising drug products directly to consumers. Social media would not make me feel any differently, and I wouldn’t specifically “ask my doctor about [insert your drug here]” just because I saw information about it on a social media site as opposed to a television commercial.
Social media is about being social, and interacting with real people (albeit in virtual terms). Having a Facebook account doesn’t make a Pfizer or Schering-Plough any more real to me, and it’s unlikely I would add them as a friend because of it. In fact, I’m probably more in the Obama camp when it comes to advertising to consumers. I am no chemist, and I am no doctor. I don’t want to even have to worry about whether a medicine that is “right for me;” that should be something that my doctor can figure out based on what ails me.
Pharma can instead leverage social media as a way to communicate with consumers about their real concerns. Having a conversation without a “spin” would be more effective to me than someone preaching the benefits of a drug followed by a legal disclaimer. It just ruins the social media experience for me.
If it does come to pass, I wonder what social media for Pharmaceuticals will look like? What do you think?
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[...] recently been communicating guidelines when it comes to new media, as evidenced in our post, “Go Ahead, Pharma: Social Media Okay, says FDA,” and the industry has had to more or less guess at what kind of practices are acceptable in [...]