ARTICLE
8 October 2011

Risks of using social media in the pharmacutical industry

The use of social media by pharmacutical and medical device companies may breach industry codes of conduct.
Australia Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences

With an explosion in the use of social media in the past five years, the use of services such as Facebook and Twitter is of growing interest to pharmaceutical and medical device companies. As was shown recently with Bayer's breach of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Code (by 'tweeting' about the launch of new drugs), dangers are ever-present for pharmaceutical companies when using social media. The same is true in Australia, where a tweet or status update on Facebook may breach the prohibition against promoting to the general public under the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct. One only needs to view the definitions of 'promote' and 'promotion, promotional or promotional claim' in the Code of Conduct to see that it does not take much to gain Medicines Australia's attention in this regard.

Guidance is needed for the industry and Medicines Australia is currently seeking comment from a number of industry members about the revision of the Code of Conduct to include greater guidance and rules for interactions in the social media sphere. How these provisions will end up in the text of the Code of Conduct remains to be seen, and we hope to provide you with significant detail of the changes, as well as other areas for concern in the social media sphere, in the next edition of Life Sciences Spotlight.

© DLA Piper

This publication is intended as a general overview and discussion of the subjects dealt with. It is not intended to be, and should not used as, a substitute for taking legal advice in any specific situation. DLA Piper Australia will accept no responsibility for any actions taken or not taken on the basis of this publication.


DLA Piper Australia is part of DLA Piper, a global law firm, operating through various separate and distinct legal entities. For further information, please refer to www.dlapiper.com

Mondaq uses cookies on this website. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies as set out in our Privacy Policy.

Learn More