Facebook Removes Drug Companies' Disabled Wall Privileges

Tweet

Drug companies used to be treated special in Facebook. One of the things most other companies have to deal with when they make a page on the social networking site is customer feedback. And drug companies are scared of feedback, so they wouldn’t even join Facebook till the web site gave them the special privilege of completely disabling public comments on company and product walls. That is until Facebook changed its mind.

The change began this Monday. Facebook is requiring drug firms to open commenting on their walls from now on, and some companies like Johnson & Johnson choose to shut its pages down instead of complying. Drug companies are scared of comments as some could land them in trouble.

Source writes:

The industry “nightmare” is processing of adverse event reports (AERs), said Joe Farris, co-founder of the Digital Health Coalition, a nonprofit group focused on online marketing of health-care products. Users might write on a company’s Wall about a specific product causing an unexpected reaction or injury. That information could qualify as an AER, and it must then be filed with the Food and Drug Administration, which uses the reports to monitor product safety.

But just like every other product or company with a Facebook page, the drug companies could delete unsavory comments from their pages. That would, however, require round the clock monitoring. Unlike Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer would be taking this route. But if they’re going to be super strict about comments, we’ll definitely only see ones that are beneficial to them posted on their walls. So if you’re looking for feedback about a particular brand or drug, I wouldn’t suggest Facebook as a go-to place for that.