Instagram Influencers Promote Prescription Drugs; FDA ' s Continuing Monitoring

The FDS has warned pharmaceutical companies in the past about their use of paid surrogates on social media sites like Instagram to promote their products (see:Pharmaceutical Companies Continue to Experiment with Social Media;FDA Issues Warning Letter to Drug Company about Use of Instagram;GlaxoSmithKline Mines Social Media for Information about Adverse Drug Events). This issue has recently returned to the news (see:The latest Instagram influencer frontier? Medical promotions. Big pharma is partnering with influencers to sell new drugs and medical devices). Below is an excerpt from the article. It's long and provides many more details so link to it if you are interested.Louise Roe has denim that ’s ripped in all the right places, a bikini-ready body year-round, a husband and baby who look like they were picked from a catalog, and 698,000 Instagram followers. She also has the skin condition psoriasis...and she wants you to know all about it.Actually, she needs to tell you about her psoriasis on Instagram; otherwise, her paid partnership withCelgene, a biotechnology company that produces the patent-protected psoriasis medication Otezla, would presumably be canceled. In recent years, businesses have adapted their advertising strategies to the rise in social media use, specifically on Instagram....The high level of Instagram user engagement gives companies an opportunity to capitalize on users with thousands of followers, aptly dubbed “influencers,” through paid advertis...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Source Type: blogs