FDA tightens reign on social media practices

When pharmaceutical companies use the 'Facebook Share' application to promote their products, that information must comply with FDA regulations, the agency made clear recently.

The FDA cracked down on Novartis, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, for misuse of the 'Facebook Share' widget on the company's American website for Tasigna, a medicine used to treat certain types of leukemia.

The content distributed through the Facebook app is "misleading because it makes representations about the efficacy of Tasigna, but fails to communicate any risk information associated with the use of this drug," the FDA wrote in a letter to Novartis.

The application at hand allows Facebook users to share content, such as articles or video, by generating a link on his or her profile to the information with a brief description and a thumbnail image. It's the brief description of Tasigna that came under scrutiny of the FDA.

In response to the FDA letter, Novartis immediately took down the widget in question. "Novartis will continue to have active discussions with the FDA to understand fully all of the concerns," a company spokesperson said over email. "We will also assess all of our web assets and materials based on these concerns.