Drugmakers No Longer Able To Block Wall Posts on Facebook

Starting today, most pharmaceutical companies no longer will have the option to block public comments on their Facebook pages, marking a reversal by the social networking website, the Washington Post reports.

Details on Changes

The company will allow some drugmakers to block wall comments for specific prescription product pages, but pages that are focused on the companies themselves or that serve as disease- or patient-specific communities will be open to public comment.

Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy communications for Facebook, said, “We think these changes will help encourage an authentic dialogue on pages.”

Drugmakers’ Concerns

Many drugmakers are worried about the risks of allowing the public to comment on their Facebook walls, and some are reconsidering whether to maintain profiles on the site.

The companies are concerned that users might write about adverse side effects, promote off-label drug use or post inappropriate statements about their products, which could raise alarm among government regulators.

For example, some firms are worried that if a Facebook user posts a comment about a bad reaction to a specific drug, the company would need to file an adverse event report with FDA.

Monitoring Comments

Under the new Facebook policy, owners of profile pages still will be able to delete comments after they appear.

Andrew Widger, a spokesperson for Pfizer, said the company will keep its pages open but will “monitor to make sure no inappropriate comments are posted, and manage them if and when they occur.”

Tony Jewell, a spokesperson for AstraZeneca, said “We’re very strongly committed to social media, but we have to make sure that the amount of time and resources spent on (monitoring it for problems) is appropriate.” On Friday, AstraZeneca shut down a page devoted to depression, and Johnson Johnson is expected to close four pages today (Torres, Washington Post, 8/12).

Social Media Guidelines for Drug Industry Still in the Works

FDA has been developing guidelines for pharmaceutical companies and social media for several years.

The release of the guidelines has faced several delays, and FDA officials say they do not know when they will be finished (Scott, “Newsworks,” WHYY, 8/11).

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Judge Says Facebook Can Get the “Smoking Gun” Contract

A federal judge has order that Facebook should access to what it calls the “smoking gun” in the strange saga of a New Yorker who claims to own more than half of the social networking giant based on a contract that Facebook says is a forgery.

Both parties agree that Mark Zuckerberg signed a contract in 2003 with Paul Ceglia, the woud-be-heir-apparent to Facebook, to do some freelance programming work. But in 2010, Ceglia filed suit, produced a copy of the contract that also included a $1000 investment in “The Page Book” entitling him to half of Facebook. Facebook charges that Ceglia, who has a checkered past, forged a page of the contract.

Now Facebook will get to see the contract that Ceglia sent to his lawyer in a series of e-mails in 2003. Facebook described these as the “authentic contract” that were smoking guns proving fraud. Ceglia’s current set of lawyers tried to keep those e-mails out of the case, citing attorney-client privilege.

But on Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio overruled that designation and said the four e-mails, along with dozens of other pieces of evidence designated as “confidential” by Ceglia, had to be turned over to Facebook’s lawyers by 10:00 am Wednesday morning.

Foschio’s ruling wasn’t published until Sunday. The full ruling reveals that Foschio decided that just because the e-mails were sent by Ceglia to his then-lawyer, that does not make them protected.

“Because the email merely transmits another document – the contract – to an attorney, it neither seeks confidential legal advice nor constitutes a confidential communication relating to such advice,” Foschio ruled. “Specifically, the contract, already signed by Zuckerberg, by definition cannot be considered as a confidential communication…”

If indeed, the original contract differs significantly from the one produced in 2010, when Ceglia said he discovered the existence of Facebook and remembered that he’d been the first investor, the suit will likely end.

That, in turn, will likely stamp “The End” to the long-running legal saga over Facebook’s founding. That drama included a now-settled suit with three Harvard classmates, including the now infamous Winklevoss twins, made famous in the 2010 Hollywood hit, “The Social Network.”

Facebook is valued above $80 billion, and is widely expected to hold an IPO sometime in 2011.

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