Emily Steel reports that Web companies such as Google, Yahoo, and WebMD are expected to join the drug industry at a Food and Drug Administration hearing today that will look into drug makers' digital marketing efforts. Internet companies missed out on most of $4.4 billion that pharmaceutical companies spent to advertise last year despite the average of 91 million Americans who seek health information online each month, according to comScore. Pharmaceutical companies spent $130 million to advertise prescription drugs on the Web last year, according to TNS.
Drug companies such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer say that they welcome guidelines from the FDA. "Clearly, when you look at the number of people on Twitter and Facebook, there is no doubt how people want to communicate," says Ray Kerins, vp of worldwide communications at Pfizer. "This is a new medium, and we need guidelines so that we can educate patients and physicians in a safe and appropriate way."
But calling for more regulation could backfire and greatly limit the scope of drug marketing online, Steel points out. An FDA spokeswoman says only that the purpose of the hearing is to gather information.
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Eli Lilly has made $38 billion on Zyprexa and it was way oversold and caused diabetes and in some cases sudden death. Eli Lilly has received a huge criminal fine over their Zyprexa cash cow,add it all up comes to $4.6 billion, in Zyprexa settlements,fines,litigation.
Did you know that Lilly made $ billions last year on diabetic meds, Actos,Humulin and Byetta?
Yes! They sell a drug that can cause diabetes and then turn a profit on the drugs that treat the condition that they may have caused in the first place! ---- Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com