British Trade Association Publishes Social Media Guidance for Pharma and Biotech Companies

The British Trade Association announced that it has published guidance on the acceptable use of social media by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

This guidance follows the failure of the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S to publish its guidance on social media. 

“Marketing and medical affairs executives in the U.S. have been looking to the Food and Drug Administration for direction on using social media correctly,” said Jason Richardson, president of Cutting Edge Information, in a release.  “The European guidance offers a potential glimpse into what the FDA’s own guidance will contain.”

According to European trade association sources, a new executive briefing titled, ‘Making Sense of Social Media in a Regulatory Vacuum,’ gives insights into the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to navigate ambiguous and delayed regulatory guidelines for social media.

Also, the U.S. trade association PhRMA announced that it will wait for the FDA publication before chalking out its own doctrine for companies’ social media usage.

Since FDA has missed its self-imposed deadlines to release guidelines again and again, pharmaceutical marketing professionals believe that it will not happen in the near future. It was revealed by FDA leaders that it will employ a piecemeal approach to issuing multiple guidance documents that will address one issue at a time.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has published a set of guidelines instructing its member organizations on the effective ways to use social media and online communication which will also ensure compliance with ABPI’s code of conduct, said officials.

“Companies are wary of venturing into unknown territory, but they are also aware of the great potential of social media,” added Richardson.  “The industry is eager for any information that may hold clues for negotiating the social media landscape.”

The ABPI guidance gives explanations regarding adverse event reporting, blog sponsorship and link sharing.  However the guidance does not include platform-specific recommendations on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. It focuses chiefly on acceptable communication practices.

In November 2010, the Prime Minister of the UK announced an independent review into whether the UK’s existing intellectual property (IP) framework supported economic growth and innovation. A call for evidence was also issued, which led to submissions from the BBC, the CBI, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, the British Copyright Council and the Motion Picture Association, reported HealthTechZone.