Drug Websites’ Influence on Consumers to Be Scrutinized by FDA
Consumer reactions to prescription- drug websites will be assessed by U.S. regulators researching how to apply decades-old advertising rules to social media.
The Food and Drug Administration proposed three studies in which participants would answer questions after viewing various versions of a website touting a fictitious drug, according to a notice to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register. The public has 60 days to comment on the plan.
The FDA may issue rules this year outlining how drugmakers led by Roche Holding AG (ROG) can post more tweets and online videos without violating marketing rules written for print, radio and television. Prescription drug ads touting products’ benefits must also provide information about risks, according to the FDA notice. Declining sales and pressure to trim costs are pushing manufacturers to find cheaper ways such as social media sites Twitter and Facebook to advertise to doctors and patients.
“Currently, there are a number of questions surrounding how to achieve ‘fair balance’” in online direct-to-consumer promotions, the agency said. The proposed web-advertising studies are “relevant to current policy questions and debate and will complement qualitative research we plan to conduct on issues surrounding social media.”
The studies would include an examination of whether personal testimonial videos posted on drug websites influence consumer perceptions of the product. FDA officials also will investigate whether the prominence of risk information on a website affects people’s understanding of possible side effects.
Previous research on prescription-drug websites has shown that “risk information is often presented less prominently and in fewer locations on the website” than information about benefits, according to the FDA notice. Disclosures about risks also are “often incomplete and written at very high literacy levels,” the agency said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelheim@bloomberg.net
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