Informing and Refining the Prescription Drug Promotion Research Agenda

Background and Meeting Objectives

The FDA is responsible for ensuring that prescription drug promotion, including direct-to-consumer (DTC) and health care provider-directed promotional materials, is truthful, balanced, and accurately communicated. However, the broader landscape for prescription drug promotion continues to evolve as patients and health care providers increasingly use digital tools to inform and manage aspects of care and drug manufacturers look to these tools to reach target audiences. While some of these tools and communication channels may be outside of FDA’s statutory jurisdiction, understanding the broader digital marketing landscape is an important prerequisite to refining the FDA’s own prescription drug promotion research agenda and identifying potential touchpoints where collective research could improve and safeguard the information that makes its way to patients and providers.

This meeting will feature an array of experts whose research in prescription drug promotion and digital marketing can help inform the FDA of important emerging trends, effective study designs, and other complementary learnings that may have bearing on the agency’s research agenda on prescription drug promotion. Participants will explore a wide range of topics related to current and future trends in drug promotion, how drug promotion can affect patient and health care provider thinking and decision making, and how to best support research at the FDA that is both impactful and actionable.

Acknowledgement of Federal Support

Funding for this event was made possible, in part, by the Food and Drug Administration through grant U01FD006807. Views expressed in written materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does any mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organization imply endorsement by the United States Government.