There’s growing concern over how pharmaceutical companies use social media and the Internet to market their products. Last November, the US Food and Drug Administration held a hearing on the topic, and many were worried over how marketing mediums such as Twitter — which has a 140-character limit on text — can sufficiently disclose drug risks. The FDA asked for comment, and several pharmaceutical companies, advocacy groups and members of the public have since spoken up.

There’s plenty to say, apparently, about 140 characters.

While many of the commenters submitted lengthy reports with their ideas, we’ve condensed the information into — you guessed it — Twitter-size summaries. The snippets below are paraphrased and condensed versions of the actual comments; for details, click on the commenter’s name and check out their full submission to the FDA.

Bayer HealthCare: It’s difficult to include risk information in limited space, so posts should instead include a conspicuous link that provides all the info.

Johnson & Johnson: Include a ‘more info’ link if an ad contains a product name; if a product claim is made, risks should also be mentioned for balance.

Eli Lilly: Aside from links, consider the use of pop-ups, rollovers and scroll bars to display the required safety information.

Pfizer: The FDA should collect mock-ups for potential ads, tweets, etc. As long as these are truthful and non-misleading, they should be approved.

Novartis: Create an FDA version of the link-shortening bit.ly tool. Use the word ‘safe’ or ‘safety’ in the link to indicate the info available.

Merck: Ads that feature a product claim and company are most helpful to a consumer; allow for these and an accompanying link to safety info.

PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America): In the written ad or tweet, mention specific drug risks or that all drugs carry risks; use an official symbol to link to FDA info.

AstraZeneca: Rather than look at individual tweets in isolation, evaluate them as a whole conversation, with mentions of risks in only some pieces.

Google: In search result ads, limit product claims to one, 62-character line, followed by another line of 62 characters max, with the label ‘Risks:’

Center for Digital Democracy: Format isn’t as much of an issue as the data collection and monitoring of consumers being done through Twitter, Facebook, and other sites.