The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently took a small step towards providing industry with the long-awaited guidance on how pharmaceutical makers may communicate about their products on social media like Twitter.

In July, 2012, Congress gave the FDA two years to come up with comprehensive policies on Internet promotion, and FDA has now released for comment the draft guidance document entitled, “Fulfilling Regulatory Requirements for Postmarketing Submissions of Interactive Promotional Media for Prescription Human and Animal Drugs and Biologics.” It is the first of what is certain to be a series of guidance documents on this subject.

This draft guidance is intended to describe FDA’s current thinking about how manufacturers, packers, and distributors (firms), that may either be the applicant or acting on behalf of the applicant, of prescription human and animal drug and biological products (drugs) can fulfill regulatory requirements for postmarketing submissions of interactive promotional media for their FDA-approved products.

FDA states that a company will be responsible for product promotional communications on sites that are owned, controlled, created, influenced, or operated by, or on behalf of, the firm. Such product promotional communications may include firm-sponsored microblogs (e.g., Twitter), social networking sites (e.g., Facebook), firm blogs, and other sites that are under the control or influence of the firm. In determining whether a firm must submit promotional material about its product to FDA, the Agency considers whether the firm, or anyone acting on its behalf, is influencing or controlling the promotional activity or communication in whole or part. Thus, a firm is responsible if it exerts influence over a site in any particular, even if the influence is limited in scope. For example, if the firm collaborates on or has editorial, preview, or review privilege over the content provided, then it is going to be responsible for that content, says the document. A firm is responsible for promotion on a third-party site if the firm has any control or influence on the third-party site, even if that influence is limited in scope. For example, if a firm collaborates, or has editorial, preview, or review privilege, then it is responsible for its promotion on the site and, as such, that  the site is subject to submission to FDA to meet postmarketing submission requirements.

FDA said it recognizes the challenges of submitting promotional materials that display real-time information and thus in the draft makes recommendations for submitting interactive promotional media. The main point of this part of the draft guidance is that marketers don’t always need to obtain FDA pre-clearance on planned tweets or an online posting before it is sent out.  If a firm submits interactive promotional media in the manner described in this draft guidance, FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion regarding the regulatory requirements for postmarketing submissions related to promotional labeling and advertising.

The draft does not address such things as how risks can be communicated within the character-limits of media like Twitter, and  what constitutes acceptable use of hyperlinks. Clearly, more to come.