The Food and Drug Administration recently sent letters to 14 pharmaceutical companies regarding their online advertisements—specifically relating to paid search campaigns. The regulatory agency found the ads misleading because they did not contain information about the potential risks of the advertised products. Most of the companies, including Pfizer Inc, Eli Lilly and Co., Merck & Co., Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Rouche, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., were cited for advertisements related to multiple drugs.
What does this mean? The FDA is telling pharmaceutical companies to put 10 pounds of stuff (fair balance) into a 5 pound bag (paid search placement). Guess what? It doesn’t fit. Paid search ads provide very limited space for communicating messages or information (25 characters in the ad title, and 70 characters in the body of the ad), making it not feasible to include the risk information in the advertisement as is now required by the FDA.
Symbicort Paid Search on Google
As a result, pharma’s ability to use search engine marketing to build awareness or to drive traffic to branded websites is severely restricted. Instead, branded search will serve more as a “reminder.” , This is similar to the way pharma marketers currently use brandedbanner ads, where real estate for fair balance is also limited.
Unless Google, the FDA, and the pharma industry can collaborate and reach a reasonable agreement on new guidelines (for example, a pop-up display containing risk information when a searcher moves their mouse over a paid search ad, or the addition of link within the paid search ad that will take the user to an interstitial page containing the risk information), I expect the recent FDA rebuke will result in an increase in unbranded promotions and programs more focused on disease and condition education than brand awareness.
This is good news for both patients and healthcare professionals, who will find better tools and resources to assist them in successful treatment outcomes. This also presents a terrific opportunity for pharmaceutical marketers to leverage digital for its greatest strengths—the ability to truly engage consumers with deeper, more valuable content than they can provide through other promotional channels. Think of promotions like Wyeth’s KnowMenopause.com or Novartis’ AskAboutIron.com. Ideally, pharma marketers will integrate digital educational tools into a multi-touchpoint approach, building brand awareness through broadcast and print while providing valuable educational resources through digital, both online as well as in the office.
