Por que las farmaceuticas no usan Twitter?

The pharmaceutical industry spent $4 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising in 2008, but only 4% of that amount flowed to the Web—a tiny percentage compared with other huge advertisers, such as auto companies. Drugmakers are holding back for fear of FDA retaliation if they fail to disclose side effects properly, or if their interactions with patients are construed as off-label marketing.

Drug companies did test the waters earlier this year with display ads that popped up on Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO) searches. Those efforts ended abruptly in April when the FDA sent letters to 14 companies, among them Eli Lilly (LLY) and Merck (MRK), demanding that the advertisers display side-effect warnings. Search ads don’t have space to explain all that, so most companies abandoned the format.

True to the law of unintended consequences, the search ads that remained became less useful to consumers, according to Google. Pharmaceutical companies switched to general, disease-related search ads with no mention of drug brands, and the number of searchers who clicked on the ads for more information dropped dramatically. That’s an indication, says Google, that the FDA’s policy is making relevant data about drugs more opaque for patients who seek it.

Drug companies are looking for clarity on more than search ads. They want to know if it is their responsibility to sniff out and correct erroneous information about their products on such sites as Wikipedia. Are they responsible for reporting to the FDA adverse drug reactions that might come up in an online comment? And what may they say in a 140-word tweet vs. a YouTube (GOOG) video vs. an online forum? «This isn’t just about selling drugs,» says Craig M. Audet, vice-president of U.S. Regulatory Affairs for Sanofi-aventis (SNY). «It’s about listening to patients and giving them what they want.»