Drug industry deals with FDA over Internet marketing by Zuzana Zelenakova

Pharmaceutical industry in the US is subjected to more regulations than any other industry when it comes to marketing of the products. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that keeps an eye on this advertising jungle is quite busy these days as the pharmaceutical companies in the country struggle to be allowed more online ads. FDA agreed to hold a meeting beginning Thursday to discuss the matter. Companies have been complaining about the fact that guidelines for media advertising in television, radio or press are ill-suited when it comes to the promoting through the Internet. These regulations are designed to ensure so called fair balance in presenting complete list of b! oth the benefits and risks of the particular product. Experts note that pharmaceutical companies mostly have shunned the waters of online advertising from fear of violating FDA´s regulations. Rules for online promoting have not been specified so far. However, there are fears that FDA will have difficulties to navigate in the area that is so innovative and meet all the needs and requirements, let alone the fact that the institution is not very quick to act. "What's happening is these new media are emerging at an increasingly rapid rate, and are being regulated by an agency that moves very slowly," said attorney Mark Senak who advises drug companies. "In essence, you have a regulatory communication crisis developing." Most of the drug companies´ budget assigned for marketing purposes, which is about $4.5 billion in one year, goes to advertising in traditional media where the rules are clear. Ahead of the FDA meeting with representatives of pharmaceutical companies i! t was suggested that FDA should develop a kind of logo that co! uld stan d for extensive descriptions of the drug´s risks on the Internet. The logo would link users to the product´s full description and so drug companies could put ads also on sites that always have certain character limit.

related story (sgx15884): http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091111/ap_on_hi_te/us_drug_c...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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