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Perspective from The New England Journal of Medicine — Pharmaceutical Marketing and the New Social Media
Facebook and Twitter, the largest social media Web sites, have more than 350 million users worldwide, and surveys indicate that 60% of Americans turn first to the Internet when seeking health-related information.1 It is therefore surprising that the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries have been slow to establish a social media presence. The drug industry allocated less than 4% of the more than $4 billion it spent on direct-to-consumer advertising to Internet outlets in 2008, and only a tiny fraction of that was for social networking sites.2 In the next year, however, the proportion may change substantially.
Since the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906, control by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over drug labels has been one of its most powerful tools for protecting the public's health. To encourage appropriate use of prescription drugs, the FDA has sought to ensure that promotional statements make claims about approved indications only and neither overstate the benefits nor understate the risks. A major concern has been finding ways to ensure “fair balance,” with adequate attention given to information about risks as well as benefits. When this balance is not achieved, inappropriate promotional statements can contribute to misuse of drugs, with dangerous consequences.
Via Marie Ennis-O'Connor
