Novartis chided after LinkedIn likes break drug promotion rules

Novartis has become the latest drugmaker to get in trouble over an employee’s LinkedIn likes. The U.K. drug marketing watchdog ruled the employee’s act broke the rules on advertising prescription medicines to the public but placed the blame on the worker, not the company.

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), the U.K. self-regulatory body that handles drug promotion allegations, began looking into the Novartis case after receiving two complaints about one of the drugmaker’s employees. The complainant alleged a Novartis employee based in the U.K. liked two LinkedIn posts about the approval of Cosentyx in hidradenitis suppurativa. The posts were by a U.S. academic and a news outlet.

Because LinkedIn likes to make posts visible to a user’s connections, the PMCPA views engagement with social media material about drugs as a promotional activity. LinkedIn likes from senior AstraZeneca employees led the PMCPA to rule that the company brought discredit on the industry last year. GSK previously broke the rules, too.

Novartis received a milder telling-off than GSK and, in particular, AstraZeneca, with the PMCPA concluding that the Swiss drugmaker promoted a prescription drug but dismissing a claim that it failed to maintain high standards.

The company accepted the breach of the rule on drug promotion, adding that “it is disappointed that the employee has failed to comply with Novartis’ policies and instructions on this specific occasion.” 

The PMCPA’s panel sided with Novartis on the question of whether it maintained high standards after reviewing the company’s efforts to ensure employees use social media appropriately.

“In relation to high standards, the panel took account of Novartis’ remedial actions and considered Novartis had been let down by the employee, who did not appear to be senior, despite the company’s social media policies and training; the incidents appeared to be isolated to the one individual,” the PMCPA said.