FDA tackles gray area of social media

By Deepa Seetharaman

WASHINGTON (Reuters)- Drug makers, Internet companies and nonprofits packed a hearing into what is a gray area for U.S. health regulators: how far Twitter, Wikipedia, blogs and other social media can go in promoting drugs.

The two-day public hearing, convened Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration, aims to find out if the agency needs to specifically regulate how drugs and medical devices under its oversight are promoted on the Internet.

"Consumers turn to the Web more often than the traditional channels they historically relied on" such as family, friends and doctors, Wayne Gattinella, chief executive of WebMD, a site for health information, said during a presentation.

The FDA already has strict rules governing what drug makers can say in magazine, newspaper and television advertisements, but the fast-evolving online world is a Wild West when it comes to what is -- and is not -- possible to regulate.

Some frequently used websites have inaccurate or incomplete information, and there is a lack of consistency about the quality of information on websites like Wikipedia and Drugs.com, Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said in her remarks.

"Because the risk of providing inaccurate information on medical products is so high, the FDA needs to establish ongoing relationships with... websites consumers are relying on," she said.

Other speakers slated for the event included representatives of drug companies such as Eli Lilly & Co and Pfizer Inc, as well as Internet heavyweights like Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.