{"id":629,"date":"2010-03-11T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2010\/03\/pharma-faces-a-character-count-conundrum.html"},"modified":"2010-03-11T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T12:45:00","slug":"pharma_faces_a_character_count_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/2010\/03\/pharma_faces_a_character_count_1.html","title":{"rendered":"Pharma faces a character count conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s 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<\/a> on the topic, and many were worried over how marketing mediums such as Twitter \u2014 which has a 140-character limit on text \u2014 can sufficiently disclose drug risks. The FDA<\/span> asked for comment, and several pharmaceutical companies, advocacy groups and members of the public have since spoken up.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty to say, apparently, about 140 characters.<\/p>\n

While many of the commenters submitted<\/a> lengthy reports with their ideas, we\u2019ve condensed the information into \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Twitter-size summaries. The snippets below are paraphrased and condensed versions of the actual comments; for details, click on the commenter\u2019s name and check out their full submission to the FDA<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Bayer HealthCare<\/a>: It\u2019s difficult to include risk information in limited space, so posts should instead include a conspicuous link that provides all the info.<\/p>\n

Johnson & Johnson<\/a>: Include a \u2018more info\u2019 link if an ad contains a product name; if a product claim is made, risks should also be mentioned for balance.<\/p>\n

Eli Lilly<\/a>: Aside from links, consider the use of pop-ups, rollovers and scroll bars to display the required safety information.<\/p>\n


\nPfizer<\/a>: The FDA should collect mock-ups for potential ads, tweets, etc. As long as these are truthful and non-misleading, they should be approved.<\/p>\n

Novartis<\/a>: Create an FDA version of the link-shortening bit.ly tool. Use the word \u2018safe\u2019 or \u2018safety\u2019 in the link to indicate the info available.<\/p>\n

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

PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America)<\/a>: 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.<\/p>\n

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

Google<\/a>: In search result ads, limit product claims to one, 62-character line, followed by another line of 62 characters max, with the label \u2018Risks:\u2019<\/p>\n

Center for Digital Democracy<\/a>: Format isn\u2019t as much of an issue as the data collection and monitoring of consumers being done through Twitter, Facebook, and other sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s 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 \u2014 which has a 140-character limit on text \u2014 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.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/spoonful\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}