DSA talks social media in pharma at DIA 2011

By Gareth Macdonald

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Social media Pharmacology

Social media can play a role in ensuring that medicines are safe, but regulatory input is needed according to the Drug Safety Alliance (DSA).

In-Pharmatechnologist.com spoke with Elizabeth Garrard, DSA’s chief safety officer, at DIA 2011 in Chicago, who explained that the pharmaceutical industry is starting to look beyond the product marketing aspects of social media and start examining how it can be used to report adverse events.

At the same time, Garrard continued, while regulators are working to update their thinking about social media in the era of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin as yet they have not issued any firm guidance and, she added, are still some way off publishing such a document.

In the meantime Garrard suggests that the pharmaceutical industry needs to establish best practices and keep a close eye on all information published, particularly if it is related to drug safety.

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