{"id":6878,"date":"2010-03-04T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T20:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/merck-says-fda-should-approve-one-click\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:22:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:22:02","slug":"merck-says-fda-should-approve-one-click","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/merck-says-fda-should-approve-one-click\/","title":{"rendered":"Merck Says FDA Should Approve the \u201cOne-Click Rule\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Merck submitted comments to Docket No. FDA\u20102009\u2010N\u20100441 regarding Promotion of FDA\u2010Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools (find it here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

About 75% of Merck\u2019s comments that specifically address FDA\u2019s questions is devoted to an argument in favor of the \u201cone-click rule\u201d as it applies to space-limited digital product ads. For more background on the one-click rule, see “Pharma Prefers ‘1-Click Rule’ for Presenting Fair Balance in Social Media & Other Internet-based Rx Ads.<\/a>“<\/p>\n

When FDA issued those infamous 14 notice of violation letters last spring, the drug industry was stunned and immediately pulled back from branded search engine advertising (see “The 14 Letters. Who at the FDA Knew What and When? FDA Intern Wants to Know!<\/a>“). Apparently, Merck revised its sponsored search ads to the help-seeking format \u201cin March 2009 in response to DDMAC’s enforcement letters on sponsored links.\u201d <\/p>\n

As a result, across several brands, Merck \u201cobserved an increase in click-thru rates with the unbranded, help-seeking format indicating that the format may have attracted more users seeking condition-specific information. However, the number of landing (product) site pages consumed after the click-thru consistently declined. For one brand, the number of page views by the searcher dropped by nearly 50%.\u201d <\/p>\n

Merck claims this “decrease in content consumption could indicate a lack of transparency between the advertisement and the linked to content\u201d and \u201ccurrent unbranded, help-seeking sponsored links do not meet the needs of health information seekers using Internet search engines.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to understand Merck\u2019s argument. This is the example \u201chelp-seeking\u201d ad it presented in its comments to the FDA:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

\nMerck did some market research to evaluate this and other ad formats, including this product-claim format that Google has made available to drug companies in beta tests (see “Is Google the New FDA?<\/a>“):<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

\nMerck asked its study subjects \u201cHow do you feel about having to click on the link to gain access to the product safety information?\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Product Claim ad, 78% said they found it very or somewhat acceptable. For the Help-Seeking ad, however, only 34% said it was acceptable. Well, of course it\u2019s not acceptable — to get to the product information from the Help-Seeking ad, you first have to click through to the product web site. But this doesn\u2019t mean that the Help-Seeking ad did not \u201cmeet the needs of health information seekers using Internet search engines.\u201d <\/p>\n

I think what Merck really means is that ITS needs are not being met by Help-Seeking ads!<\/p>\n

Concluding its comments on the one-click rule for Product Claim ads, Merck says \u201cthe use of hyperlinks is an appropriate and effective way to disclose product use and safety information in limited space formats. FDA should adopt standards to be consistent with FTC guidelines and allow hyperlinks to fulfill the regulatory requirements for product use and safety information disclosures in digital media with space limitations, including but not limited to, banner advertising, mobile applications, text messaging and sponsored advertisements in search engines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merck submitted comments to Docket No. FDA\u20102009\u2010N\u20100441 regarding Promotion of FDA\u2010Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools (find it here). About 75% of Merck\u2019s comments that specifically address FDA\u2019s questions is devoted to an argument in favor of the \u201cone-click rule\u201d as it applies to space-limited digital product ads. For more background […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[304,44,872,78,732,153],"topic":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMerck Says FDA Should Approve the \u201cOne-Click Rule\u201d - Pharma Marketing Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/merck-says-fda-should-approve-one-click\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merck Says FDA Should Approve the \u201cOne-Click Rule\u201d - Pharma Marketing Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Merck submitted comments to Docket No. FDA\u20102009\u2010N\u20100441 regarding Promotion of FDA\u2010Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools (find it here). 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