Why Pharma Marketers Can't Be Trusted to Correct 3rd-Party Misinformation About Drugs Online

In its draft guidance titled "Correcting Independent Third-Party Misinformation About Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices," the FDA writes:

"If a firm voluntarily corrects misinformation in a truthful and non-misleading manner and as described in this draft guidance, FDA does not intend to object if the corrective information voluntarily provided by the firm does not satisfy otherwise applicable regulatory requirements regarding labeling or advertising, if any."

Peter Pitts, author of DrugWonks Blog, argues that whereas pharma brand marketers "figured out" that social media is "not ready for prime time in their 20th century 'blockbuster' marketing primer," corporate communicators see social media as the "wave of the present" but "don’t have the budgets to really make it happen to scale."

Pitts hints, however, that FDA's comments on correcting independent 3rd-party misinformation (e.g., on Wikipedia) is pretty much the industry's equivalent to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (see "Big Pharma, Social Media, and Ferris Bueller"). Carpe diem, no?

But a recent study offers evidence that pharma marketers -- and probably also pharma corporate communicators -- can't be trusted to correct 3rd-party misinformation about their products online.

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