FDA told to investigate digital marketers

The Center for Digital Democracy has urged the FDA to investigate how pharmaceutical companies are making use of digital marketing techniques, citing that the US consumer should be protected from "inappropriate and harmful use."

According to reports, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must ensure that the health and safety of US consumers are not in jeopardy because of how the pharmaceutical and health marketers have embraced "potentially harmful [...]  digital marketing applications" which have given the industry "unprecedented abilities to take advantages of consumers."

Re-evaluation

The concerns come from the non-profit Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and continue to say that "direct-to-consumer digital marketing of pharmaceutical and health-related products requires the FDA to re-evaluate its standards for advertising practices, including what should be considered as truthful and non-misleading."

Claims from the CDD suggest that a digital marketing system which is designed to "more effectively tap into the concerns - and ultimately the anxieties - of those seeking health information" has emerged across pharmaceutical websites, so-called "unbranded" sites, popular social networking sites and interactive video channels. The CDD, however, are concerned that few people are aware that they are being identified or labeled on the internet while they search or access the information on specific conditions or concerns.

"Safeguards"

The group's warning to the FDA says that it is "essential" that the regulator establishes "safeguards" for internet-related promotion, especially considering that interactive online communication is growing and - according to analysts - is likely to become the dominant form of delivery for health information in the next few years.

Jeff Chester, the CDD's executive director, says that "during a two day hearings conducted by the FDA last November on these issues, pharmaceutical marketers had purposely painted a sanitised, storybook image of social media marketing. Missing was data and information related to the powerful capabilities of interactive marketing to promote relationships with specific brands, including its ability to foster what has been called consumer 'micro-persuasion'.

"We want the FDA to make some policies related to pharmaceutical marketing that reflect the distinct nature of interactive marketing," he continued, adding that the CDD had commended the FDA for sending out warning letters to 14 drugmakers in April last year relating to their "inappropriate" use of search marketing advertising.

Matthew Buttell

Matt Buttell graduated from Bath Spa University in 2006. Since then he has written for several publications, before moving to the web. He now writes solely for the internet, continuing to cover key business issues while managing his own personal blog.

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