January 5, 2012 » FDA & Social Media “Guidelines”

Lab Notes from the Innovation Lab
FDA & Social Media “Guidelines”
The FDA recently issued draft guidelines that impact how pharma can communicate in social media, but leaves many in the industry underwhelmed.
The FDA publicly recognizes the value of the Internet and social media—and pharma—in public health. This, while small, is a step in the right direction.
The

January 10, 2011 » Online Video: Planning for Regulatory and Marketing Success

Integrating video in branded or disease education campaigns is an effective way to encourage patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals to engage and act. Eight out of ten Internet users in the U.S. view online video, and six out of ten pharma consumers indicate a demand for health videos. The ROI is concrete:

August 30, 2010 » How NOT to Build an Unbranded Website

There’s a fundamental rule in marketing drug products: if you share positive information about your brand you also need to share the negative. This rule applies equally to branded sites as well as to unbranded or disease awareness sites in which there is a significant discussion of treatment class and products.
In February 2004, the US

August 12, 2010 » Novartis’s Most Recent Letter: Social Media—Facebook—is the Channel Not the Issue

So at this point most folks have heard about the Novartis letter regarding the Tasigna.com Facebook Share feature; in the event that you didn’t, here is what happened:

On July 29, 2010 the FDA issued a warning letter to Novartis for the Facebook share button and sharebar on the Tasigna product website – both consumer and HCP sides. The issue was that when a user clicked the share button, it displayed a post on the user’s Facebook wall. The post was a statement (that varied by page) that typically included the brand name and the indication. It was a brief statement with a link to the website, so of course it did not include fair balance. Further, language within the statement used on some of the pages used superiority language that FDA had previously told them not to use.

April 22, 2010 » Next Under the Knife… Pharma SEO

The FDA finally took notice, this past April, of Paid Search when they decided to send out 40 letters to some of the most high profile pharma brands around. One letter that stood out among the bunch was received by Plavix, which in fact was a Paid Inclusion listing (which no longer exists) and not a Paid Search ad. This, in my mind, raises larger concern as to whether or not the FDA realizes what it stumbled upon, and if they will ever take an axe to the fine SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) that we pharma SEOs have crafted over the years?!