Kardashian promotes a pill, and the FDA strikes

“OMG. Have you heard about this?” That was Kim Kardashian West writing on Instagram last month. The subject of her enthusiasm: a morning sickness drug.

As much of the world cannot help knowing, Kardashian is pregnant and has been struggling with, as she put it, “#morningsickness.”

So she enthusiastically reported to her tens of millions of social media followers that she was now feeling “a lot better” after taking Diclegis, a prescription morning-sickness medicine.

Declaring that “it’s been studied and there was no increased risk to the baby,” she urged other women to ask their doctors about it. And she posted a photo of herself holding a bottle of the pills. The post was perhaps the most prominent recent example of a practise that has been troubling federal regulators: the chatty, seemingly casual promotion of medicines and other products by celebrities on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) struck back against Kardashian’s post, issuing a warning letter (which it made public this week) to the drug’s maker, Duchesnay, which said the post failed to give information about the drug’s risks.
The letter ordered the company to “immediately cease misbranding”.

It was the latest among several actions the agency has taken against posts on sites like Facebook and YouTube. Thomas Abrams, the director of the drug promotion office, said in a 2013 interview that social media had complicated the agency’s ability to monitor drug promotions, citing the sheer volume of content online and the speed with which it can be changed.

“It is important to know that although we closely monitor what companies say, we generally do not have authority over statements made by independent organisations or persons — what we call third parties — unless they are acting on behalf of a company,” he said.

The Federal Trade Commission, which monitors over-the-counter drugs, has also issued guidelines about celebrity endorsements, including that they be bonafide users of the product and disclose any financial arrangement.

In the case of Kardashian, she disclosed in the post that she was “partnering” with the Pennsylvania-based subsidiary Duchesnay USA to “raise awareness about treating morning sickness”, and she included links to websites for the drug and its safety information.