One of the more consistent voices in the quest to convince the FDA to issue guidance on the use of social media for pharmaceutical marketing has been the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).  The organization was among the first to offer a workable solution to the problem of providing fair-balance and communicating side effects in the space constraints often associated with social media.  And while I have a fundamental disagreement with the premise of an “FDA-approved” symbol, I have always maintained that any organization proposing solutions and not just spouting rhetoric is one step ahead of the game.

Today, the PhRMA turned up the pressure on the FDA by putting a bit of marketing muscle behind its FDA comments. Knowing full well that few people would take the time to read the entire 16-page document that makes up the PhRMA’s comments to the FDA, the organization issued a statement containing only the highlights.

As expected, the statement built the case on why social media is an important tool for pharmaceutical companies.  The PhRMA highlighted that more patients than ever before are going online to access health information and healthcare companies have a responsibility to ensure that information is timely and accurate.

From there, the PhRMA took an interesting approach to forcing the FDA’s hand.  They went with what I will call the “if you can do it why can’t we” approach.

Behold: “What’s more, the Agency should avoid chilling manufacturers’ responsible communication about their medical products and should permit them to take full advantage of the same technologies that the FDA and the White House use – including blogs, video, search and such social networking sites as Twitter™ – to communicate important health information directly to patients and their doctors.”

That’s fairly strong language for an organization that tends to tilt toward the conservative when it comes to messaging.  There are a number of sections in the PhRMA’s public comments to the FDA that read very similar.  Bravo!  They are dead on when it comes to this topic.  The FDA has demonstrated through its actions that it sees the value provided by social media in communicating information to doctors, patients and other relevant healthcare audiences.  The PhRMA is just conveniently pointing that out.

Pharmaceutical companies engaging in social media should do so only if they have more value to add to the community than they extract.  They should not be there solely to push product and should focus on the Return on Health of the patient.  This means a commitment to creating better health outcomes for patients by providing more access to information.  The PhRMA is not-so-subtly driving this message home and attempting to place added pressure on the FDA. I for one hope it works!