As Facebook opened pharmaceutical industry pages to public commenting recently, some companies said they had not yet seen troublesome comments, while others continued to move offline to avoid potential risks.
According to an article from the Indianapolis Star, “Facebook reversed a policy that exempted all drug company pages from open walls.”
Pages focused on companies themselves and on disease or patient-specific communities are now open to comments, while those focused on a specific prescription product continue to be closed.
Some companies have worried that open walls might lead to the reporting of bad side effects, promotion of off-label use or inappropriate statements — all of which could raise concern from government regulators.
Because of the uncertain relationship between Facebook and drug companies, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. shied away from the social media outlet from the start.
“Partly because of those rules and the kind of fuzziness around how we can use Facebook because of regulations, we are not overly active on Facebook,” said spokesman Greg Kueterman. The Indianapolis-based company has no pages dedicated to specific products, he said.
It does have pages dedicated to specific corporate projects, including the Oncology on Canvas program, which gives cancer survivors an outlet to create art. The article noted that, “the new regulations will have little effect on Lilly.” Kueterman stated that the company does not feel like they “are going to need to change anything right now.”
Amgen removed its “Breakaway from Cancer” page Monday. The company sells the cancer drugs Neulasta, Neupogen and Vectibix. “We’re still working through the issues of comment moderation,” said spokeswoman Christine Regan.
Bayer closed its “Strong at Heart” page. It is instead maintaining its similarly themed “I am ProHeart” page.
Johnson & Johnson removed four of its pages last Monday. AstraZeneca removed one page last Friday.
Sanofi, which owns pages related to diabetes and pertussis (whooping cough) and a company page, has seen no problems, said spokesman Jack Cox.
Pfizer also has not had any issues, said spokesman Andrew Widger.
Discussion
The larger problem behind the issue and use of social media in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry is the lack of guidance on the topic provided by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency has failed to meet several announced deadlines for issuing guidance on social media, leaving many companies confused about what to do for fear of prosecution by the federal government. Accordingly, the ongoing confusion and controversy surrounding the use of social media by industry may continue in the near future, with more and more companies likely to shut down their sites in order to control their exposure to investigations.
This isn’t too surprising, given the potential risks. Do you know when the FDA now is saying the social media guidance may be expected?
Sue,
I don’t think that the FDA is going to issue a social media guidance anytime soon. There are too many moving parts and forms of social media (Facebook, Twitter, You Tube….) and not an agreement within the FDA and it evolves too quickly.
Tom