NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold a two-day public hearing in November on how pharmaceutical companies use the web and social-media tools to market their products, the first step in a long overdue process that will finally establish guidelines for how drug makers proceed in a Web 2.0 world.
The industry is embracing the news, despite the newfound regulatory heavy hand the FDA has shown under the Obama administration. “It’s about time,” said an executive for one top-five pharmaceutical company who asked not to be identified. “Any guidance at all is better than having no guidance, which is what we have right now.”
Regulatory guidelines are now sorely lacking for direct-to-consumer spending by pharmaceutical companies using internet media. While overall DTC spending fell to $4.7 billion in 2008, a 10.6% drop according to TNS Media Intelligence, internet spending by drug makers zoomed 36% to $137 million — a modest output, but, again, a figure that was likely hampered by a lack of regulation and a fear of FDA retribution. It also does not account for web video, social media and other forms of marketing being increasingly embraced by the industry.
http://adage.com/results?endeca=1&return=endeca&search_offset=0&search_order_by=score&search_phrase=09/23/2009>
http://www.pharmainfocus.com.au/news.asp?newsid=2953
Posted 28 September 2009
Wyeth spent over $1 million on a single Australian weekend meeting on
antidpressants in March this year shortly after the PBS listing of its
new SSRI, Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) say new Medicines Australia (MA)
records for spending on sponsored events.
The company, which is continuing to mount a so far successful defence of
its remaining patents on Australia’s biggest selling antidepressant
Efexor-XR (venlafaxine), described the event as a “new anti-depressant
overview weekend meeting” and said the money was spent on venue hire,
hospitality, speaker fees, accommodations and flights and various
technical support and event management fees.
The occasion was a standout among 16,020 events sponsored by MA member
companies over the six months from 1 January to 30 June 2009 at a total
cost of $31.89 million, $15.65 million of which was spent on hospitality
(an average of $39.22 per attendee). Total spending is a slight jump
from the second half of 2008, which came in at just over $30 million,
but down from the first half of 2008, at $32.6 million
http://www.pharmainfocus.com.au/opinion.asp?opinionid=278
Last week was an important one for watchers of the continuing debate
over pharmaceutical industry influence on medical and healthcare
professionals. Developments overseas and in Australia showed that the
march towards greater transparency is gaining pace.
In the US, Merck has added its name to the list of major pharma
companies that have voluntarily decided to publish payments made to
doctors on their corporate websites.
It joins Pfizer, Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline in either disclosing or
pledging to disclose payments for such activities as consulting,
speaking and writing. GSK has also said it will cap payments at US
$150,000 to any one doctor.