According to the Wall Street Journal, the New York City Health Department has bought Google Ads in order to reach the citizens in their city. In ads that began running Monday, the NYC Health department bought search words that had to do with the H1N1 virus in order to reach the citizens of the city who are looking for the right information. The search terms have worked, as each day around 1,000

Remember the 14 Notice of Violation (NOV) letters that FDA sent to 14 drug companies citing their Adwords — paid search engine ads — for violating FDA regulations? At issue was (and still is) the so-called “One-Click Rule,” which states that an online Rx drug ad can mention the brand name and the benefits (indications) without including all or any of the major side effect effects (fair balance) as long as the fair balance is just one click away (ie, on the landing page). See ” The ‘One-Click Rule’: Rant or No Rant

It is always a good idea to review the content of Warning and untitled letters to learn from the lessons being taught be DDMAC with respect to communications that promote the marketing of pharmaceutical, biotech and device products.  However, I have been behind on reporting on the Warning and Untitled Letter updates from DDMAC and my last report was for the third quarter of 2008

The FDA has recently changed the policies on search engine marketing. Companies can only buy sponsored search terms if they can contain a fair and balanced claim.

After last week’s flurry of FDA warning letters directed at companies marketing through search ads, industry is left wondering what can be done be done to target patients online?

FDA is cracking down on content in search engine advertisements. The argument is that there is a serious deficiency of risk information in the tiny link ads that appear on search ads. With pharma already wary of marketing online, will FDA’s tactic hurt future Web campaigns?

According to FiercePharma.com, fourteen companies, including Biogen Idec, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche received warning letters from the FDA about “sponsored links” within Google’s search engine. The links go to the advertised drug’s website where plenty of information is available