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68 Food & Drug L.J. 259 (2013)
A Comparative Legal Analysis of Social Media Advertising of Drugs in Germany and the United States

handle is hein.journals/foodlj68 and id is 291 raw text is: A Comparative Legal Analysis of Social Media Advertising of Drugs in Germany and the United States BIANCA BUECHNER* I. BACKGROUND Like a user comments on company XYZ-Pharm's Facebook website. XYZ-Pharm is a global acting pharmaceutical company. Hundreds of other Facebook users do the same and post comments such as how useful the drug is, how the drug helps them and what they use the drug for. XYZ-Pharm posts information about their product on Facebook as well; replies to user comments and compares their product against other similar products of competitors. The company also gives advice, when a Facebook user asks for it. This is a potential scenario of a way pharmaceutical companies could use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise their medicinal products directly to the consumer. The WEGO Health Survey showed that 63% of queried health activists said that the social media dialogue between healthcare companies and online communities is valuable.' In the survey, 73% favored regulation when companies pay bloggers to create the content; 67% preferred if they sponsor social networking sites for a particular health condition; 67% wanted to create social networking sites for a particular health condition; 66% preferred to be able to leave comments on third-party sites and 60% like to establish company accounts on social networking sites like Facebook.2 As the survey showed, social media became an important tool for health communication.' However, . Dr. iur. Bianca Buechner, LL.M ( Health Law, Policy and Bioethics, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Indianapolis (Indiana) is a German attorney. She is a Affiliate Faculty Member at the Indiana University Center for Bioethics, Indianapolis (Indiana, USA) and a Affiliated Research Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (Cells) Hannover, Germany. The author gratefully acknowledges Professor Dr. Eleanor Kinney (Emeritus) for her critical review and comments. 1 Matthew Arnold, Social Media power users favour letting companies socialize, survey finds, www. mmm-online.com/social-media-power-users-letting-companies-socialize-survey-finds/article/20003 1/ (April 5, 2011), last visited 02/06/2012. 2 FDA, wegohealth, Health Activists and Social Media FDA Questions 1, 2, 3, Promotion of Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools, www.fda. gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CDER/IUCMI93441.pdf, last visited December 12, 2011; see also Matthew Arnold, Social Media power users favour letting companies socialize, survey finds, www. mmm-online.com/social-media-power-users-letting-companies-socialize-survey-finds/article/200031/ (April 5, 2011), last visited 02/06/2012. FDA, wegohealth, Health Activists and Social Media FDA Questions 1, 2, 3, Promotion of Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools, www.fda. gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CDER/UCM 193441 .pdf, last visited December 12, 2011. 259

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