WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is providing updated recommendations to medical product companies to address misinformation about FDA-regulated medical products.
'Regulated industry plays a critical role in ensuring consumers have accurate information about medical products. We've updated our draft guidance to help further ensure industry has clarity and additional flexibility to promptly and proactively issue responsive communications to address misinformation they are seeing,' said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf. 'The growing spread of rumors about science and medicine continues to put patients and consumers at risk. We remain steadfast in our commitment to address this public health concern and continue to support and encourage all parties in the public health ecosystem to take an active role.'
The FDA said it is critically important to promptly address misinformation about medical products as in today's health care system, health care providers and consumers often turn to the internet to obtain health and medical-related information. Many information found online is unreliable. False statements and conclusions shared online and on social media platforms can spread rapidly to a broad audience. It can lead patients and health care providers to choose treatments that are not safe and effective.
The revised draft guidance, titled 'Addressing Misinformation About Medical Devices and Prescription Drugs Questions and Answers', sets out a policy that supports companies that issue certain kinds of internet-based communications to address internet-based misinformation about or related to their approved/cleared medical products when that misinformation is created or disseminated by an independent third party.
FDA cited examples of companies choosing to use this type of communication when a celebrity, healthcare provider or influencer, not acting on behalf of the company, posts false or misleading representations of fact about the company's medical product on social media.
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