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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