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Google and Yahoo! Push for More Drugs Online
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is meeting with pharmaceutical representatives and online advertising executives to decide the future of marketing drugs online.
Drug companies such as Pfizer and GSK are being hamstrung by regulations that require them to list details of possible side effects of their drugs, leaving little or no room to outline their advertising message for brand promotion.
As online marketing becomes a stronger media through which major companies wish to advertise, the pharmaceutical companies are asking the FDA to reconsider their guidelines for the new wave of digital media.
Internet giants Google and Yahoo! have also lent their support to the proceedings arguing that the FDA need to be more flexible in their approach for drugs advertising online to allow companies to promote their products.
Vice President at Yahoo! David Zinman told the Associated Press: “We need to get some adjustment to the way the medium is used because it’s very different from print and broadcast – that’s the main challenge”.
As display advertising online works in such small spaces, drug companies are forced to run anonymous ads which are very generic rather than promoting the benefits of their products. One advert for Pfizer’s cholesterol reducing drug Lipitor reads “Cholesterol levels” without really explaining what the product is about.
Advertising in the drugs industry is huge business. Around $4.3 billion was spent last year on patient-targeted advertising from drug companies, but only $129 million of that money was spent online. Relaxing the regulations will encourage the likes of Pfizer to dedicate more of their advertising budgets to online advertising, if the FDA approves the move.
Online Advertising news posted by Scott Tickner on 13 November 2009
