Earlier this week, the FDA issued two draft guidances on social media, and Reed Smith attorneys Colleen Davies, Celeste Letourneau, Kevin Madagan, and Jennifer Pike have written a client alert that analyzes them both in detail. The first guidance pertains to product claims and risk information on platforms like Twitter and sponsored links, and the second to correcting third party misinformation that appears in social media, such as in comments on a Facebook page or website.
A key date to keep in mind is that the deadline for comments is September 16, 2014.… Continue Reading
FDA's Office of Prescription Drug Promotion has warned a Swiss drug company about failing to include risk information and omitting material facts regarding its products. What makes these particular violations noteworthy is that they occurred on the company's Facebook page. FDA became aware of the company's Facebook promotion through its own monitoring and surveillance program.… Continue Reading
On May 11, 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a new initiative - the "Bad Ad Program" - designed to educate health care practitioners about their role in ensuring that prescription drug advertising and promotion is truthful, and not misleading. With the launch of this program, FDA, through the Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications (DDMAC), a division within FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, is now actively seeking to "collaborate with health care professionals" to increase the effectiveness of the agency's marketing and advertising surveillance program. DDMAC is responsible for assuring prescription drug information is truthful, balanced, and accurately communicated, and guarding against false and misleading advertising and promotion through comprehensive surveillance, enforcement, and educational programs.… Continue Reading
FDA has released a proposed rule that would amend the regulations affecting direct-to-consumer ("DTC") advertisement regulations to implement a provision of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. The change in regulations would require DTC television or broadcast advertisements of prescription drugs to place the "major statement" in a "clear, conspicuous and neutral manner." Under the regulation, FDA would use the following standards to determine whether the information meetings the clear, conspicuous and neutral requirement: 1) information is presented in language that is readily understandable by consumers; 2) audio information is understandable in terms of the volume, articulation, and pacing used; 3) textual information is placed appropriately and is presented against a contrasting background for sufficient duration and in a size and style of font that allows the information to be read easily; and 4) the advertisement does not include distracting representations (including statements, text, images, or sounds or any combination thereof) that detract from the communication of the major statement.
To learn more about FDA's proposed rule on DTC advertising, please read our full alert.… Continue Reading
The Chinese government officially launched the National Essential Drug System (NEDS) Aug. 18, 2009 at a press conference held by the State Council, during which it explained the concentration of specific drug purchases in urban and county grass-roots health institutions as the first step in the implementation of NEDS. By 2009, NEDS will be implemented in 30 percent of government-run urban and county health care institutions in each province, region, or municipality. NEDS could have significant implications for the marketing, sale, distribution, and pricing of drugs by multinational and Chinese pharmaceutical companies in China.… Continue Reading
The article on “Prescription Drug and Medical Device Promotion – New FDA Draft Guidance on Presenting Risk Information” by Reed Smith lawyers Areta Kupchyk, Frederick Branding, Jennifer Goldstein and Kevin Madagan (previously discussed in this post) has now been published in AHLA’s Health Lawyers Weekly.… Continue Reading
On June 9, 2009, Vermont's governor signed S. 48, a new law that revises the state's current pharmaceutical marketing disclosure requirements. The new statute expands the application of Vermont's current requirement that pharmaceutical manufacturers annually disclose certain expenditures made in connection to interactions with Vermont health care professionals. Under the new law, the disclosure requirement now also applies to medical device companies. Further, the new law adds a ban on certain items and expenditures that was not included in the previous version. Notably, this gift ban goes into effect July 1, 2009...… Continue Reading
On May 27, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") announced the availability of a draft guidance titled "Presenting Risk Information in Prescription Drug and Medical Device Promotion" ("Draft Guidance"). The Draft Guidance sets forth the standards FDA intends to consider when evaluating promotional pieces to determine whether they effectively communicate risk information in a non-misleading manner. Under the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act ("FDCA") and FDA's implementing regulations, promotional materials making claims about a product are deemed misleading if they fail to disclose certain information about the product's risks. FDA is accepting comments on the draft through Aug. 25, 2009. Reed Smith's full alert provides a brief outline of the Draft Guidance and identifies issues for possible comment to FDA.… Continue Reading
On March 11, 2009, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (the "Department") released final regulations that impose restrictions on pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers' sales and marketing activities. The final regulations--which implement section 14 of the Massachusetts Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care (the "Act")-- also require companies to file annual disclosures of all fees, payments and economic benefits paid to health care professionals that total $50 or more.
Massachusetts now joins seven other jurisdictions that have issued similar requirements. Currently, California and Nevada both require manufacturers to adhere to restrictions on marketing activities, and the District of Columbia, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont and West Virginia all mandate periodic disclosures of payments and other economic benefits to health care professionals. Massachusetts, however, has the broadest regulations in two regards. First, Massachusetts is the only state to include both a marketing code of conduct that is specifically enumerated in detail in the regulations as well as annual financial disclosure obligations. Other jurisdictions require adherence to a marketing code or disclosure, but not both. Second, Massachusetts is the first state to require financial disclosure from medical device companies. Financial disclosure requirements in other states currently only apply to pharmaceutical companies.… Continue Reading
On December 10, 2008, the European Commission published a series of political measures and legislative proposals, the so-called "Pharmaceutical Package." This series included the "Communication on a renewed vision for the pharmaceutical sector," which reflected on ways to improve market access and develop initiatives to boost European Union ("EU") pharmaceutical research. Through the Pharmaceutical Package, the European Commission aims to make pricing and reimbursement more transparent, increase the development of pharmaceutical research within the EU, improve the safety of medicines worldwide, and reinforce cooperation with international partners.
The European Commission has published three separate sets of proposals amending Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community Code of medicinal products and Regulation 726/2004 on medicinal products obtained through centralized procedures:
1. A proposal amending Directive 2001/83 as "regards information to the general public on medicinal products subject to medical prescription" (Information to patient);
2. A proposal amending Directive 2001/83 and a proposal amending Regulation 726/2004 as "regards pharmacovigilance" (The EU pharmacovigilance system); and,
3. A proposal amending Directive 2001/83 as "regards the prevention of the entry into the legal supply chain of medicinal products which are falsified in relation to their identity, history or source" (Counterfeit Medicines).… Continue Reading
Recent posts on www.lifescienceslegalupdate.com include:
"Commentary: FDA's New Good Reprint Practice Rule". The Food and Drug Administration's new Good Reprint Practice ("GRP") Guidance went into effect January 2009. The GRP Guidance establishes criteria that FDA will now use to determine whether the distribution of medical or scientific reprints and reference texts about off-label uses of a drug or device would constitute impermissible promotional activity under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
https://www.lifescienceslegalupdate.com/2009/01/articles/regulatory-developments/commentary-fdas-new-good-reprint-practice-rule/
...and "Dept. of Bad Ideas: Criminalization of Product Liability" regarding the 2006 proposal by Senator Arlen Specter (R.-PA) to criminalize aspects of product liability law. https://www.lifescienceslegalupdate.com/2009/01/articles/product-liability/dept-of-bad-ideas-criminalization-of-product-liability/… Continue Reading
