A Draft Petition and Survey Calling for a Public Hearing at FDA on Use of Social Media

Many of you may know that the pharmaceutical industry is interested in engaging patients through social media such as WEGOhealth. As healthcare activists, we need to ensure that the drug industry engages properly and provides balanced, truthful, and useful information to consumers via the Internet and via social media in particular. This type of information provided by drug companies can be a useful and necessary part of the conversation about medical conditions and treatments. Consumers need a better channel to have discussions with the industry if only to ask the hard questions and get straight answers about products.

However, the drug industry is slow to get involved primarily because it is receiving mixed signals from the FDA on how it will regulate regulate the use of the Internet by drug firms.

Many activists within pharma companies and in agencies working for the industry have called upon the FDA to issue Internet guidelines so that the industry knows where the lines are drawn. Before any such guidelines are written, I have called for a public hearing at the FDA so that ALL stakeholders -- including activists representing the interests of patients -- can participate and express their opinions and concerns on the issues involved (see here). FDA needs to get a well-rounded picture of the importance of the Internet -- and especially social media -- in improving the health literacy and well-being of patients.

So far, however, no one who represents the interests of patients has been heard from concerning this issue. Please take my survey "Should FDA Convene a Public Hearing on Use of Social Media by Pharma?" (more info here).

This survey presents you with several different procedures the FDA could use to develop guidance for the use of social media for the promotion of drugs and other medical products it regulates. These are:

1. Before issuing and draft guidance, FDA should convene a public hearing in which ALL the stakeholders can put on record their suggestions and concerns.
2. FDA should consult privately with drug companies and then issue draft guidance open for public comments according to normal rulemaking procedures.
3. FDA, without ANY prior consultation with drug companies, should issue draft guidance open for public (including industry) comments as per normal rulemaking procedure.
4. If FDA solicits public comments -- no matter in what fashion -- it should publish ALL the comments it receives.

Please take the survey and indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with the above options/statements. Be sure to add comments as well. Thank you.

Go directly to the survey here.