LSHC Horizons Brochure 2024 - Flipbook - Page 72
Hogan Lovells | 2024 Life Sciences and Health Care Horizons | Cross-jurisdictional
72
Navigating the digital age: A comparative approach
to pharmaceutical advertising on social media (continued)
In the Netherlands, direct-to-consumer
promotion of over-the-counter (OTC)
medicinal products through social media is
permitted. It should comply with both the
Code for Promotion to the Public of Medicinal
Products and the Advertising Code Social
Media and Influencer Marketing, both selfregulatory industry codes of conduct. For
prescription-only medicinal products, any
communications on social media should not be
promotional, in order to steer clear from the
prohibition of direct-to-consumer promotion.
Not only pharmaceutical companies should
pay attention. Individual employees of
pharmaceutical companies in the Netherlands
have also been held to violate the advertising
rules due to posts, likes, or shares on
social media.
Hein van den Bos
Partner
Amsterdam
In the UK, the promotion of medicines
on social media platforms is permitted
and is subject to the same legal framework
that applies to the promotion of medicines
generally. The open and transitory nature of
social media platforms makes compliance
with this framework, and in particular
the prohibitions on the promotion of
prescription only medicines to the public
and the promotion of unlicensed medicines
or indications, challenging. To assist, the
Prescription Medicines Code of Practice
Authority (PMCPA) published social media
guidance in 2023 that provides practical
guidance to pharmaceutical companies on this
issue. A growing risk area for pharmaceutical
companies in the UK is responsibility for the
posts/activities of employees on social media
platforms where there is an overlap between
employees' personal use of social media and
their "professional responsibilities or the
interests of the company". Pharmaceutical
companies should have in place comprehensive
social media policies that extend to employees'
personal social media accounts and provide
training to employees on these policies and
issues, to help mitigate this risk.
In the U.S., FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug
Promotion (OPDP) appears to be ramping
up activities in the advertising/promotion
enforcement space, including by issuing
several new guidance documents. OPDP
issued enforcement letters against Instagram
“influencer” advertisements in 2015 and 2021.
However, OPDP has not updated its June 2014
draft guidance on Internet and social media
platforms with character space limitations,
despite the rise of several new platforms in
the past decade. It remains to be seen if there
will be an uptick in enforcement against social
media activities by pharmaceutical companies.
Jane Summerfield
Partner
London
Komal Karnik Nigam
Counsel
Washington, D.C.
Alexandra Wood
Associate
London
Sally Gu
Senior Associate
Washington, D.C.
