On Tuesday March 8th, Mary Nell Cummings, former assistant general counsel for GlaxoSmithKline, gave a speech at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. GlaxoSmithKline is a global pharmaceutical, vaccine, and consumer healthcare company. During her speech, Ms. Cummings introduced the struggle that many pharmaceutical companies face when attempting to advertise on new social means of communications such as Twitter, Facebook, and online blogging.
Ms. Cummings speech was very insightful and brought up many ethical questions of how far pharmaceutical companies can go to advertise their product. She began by showing a commercial for a popular anti-depressant and questioned if it would be ethically sound to promote this product on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This brings up a very interesting debate. There is no doubt that sites such as Facebook and Twitter are important upcoming means of advertising; however, is it inappropriate to promote an anti-depressant while someone is reading about what their friend did the past weekend. Ms. Cummings presented the outcomes of recent legal debates that ban certain advertising on these social mediums.
Later in her speech, Ms. Cumming went on to discuss the problems with off-label marketing. Off-Label is when a doctor proscribes a medication for unapproved indications. For example, Ms. Cummings established how the anti-depressant, Ambilify, has benefits for Alzheimer patients, although it is not clinically proven. Ms. Cummings speech went into the laws covering the marketing of this practice. It is illegal for companies to promote usage of their product for certain off-label uses. Even further, it is illegal if a representative of a pharmaceutical company notices a post from an anonymous person about an off-label usage and does not attempt to remove it. This concept can be very-controversial in a free-speech society. This also puts a lot of legal pressure on pharmaceutical companies to be on close watch of the content on their blogs and other social feeds.
Ms. Cummings speech was very informative and insightful. It showed the complexity of advertising when people’s lives are at stake. In my opinion, I believe that when it comes to advertising for pharmaceuticals, companies should have to abide by strict rules. I feel that trained doctors have a higher influence on pharmaceuticals than the media. For example, if I were to choose a certain anti-depressant, the fact that it was advertised on Facebook would not influence my decision, but rather I would be influenced by the advice I received from my doctor. These laws do make marketing these products on popular media sites more difficult; however, they are intended to keep people safe.
For more on Marketing of Pharma Industry:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHC5AYAUVI[/youtube]
