In recent article titled "Big Pharma Urges FDA to Adopt new rules for Web Marketing", Rich Thomaselli describes how Big Pharma has been addressing FDA to basically start approving search results and "marking" them with a stamp of approval when it comes to pharmaceutical websites - promotional technique.
Based on research done by Pfizer, only 22% of the search results about 8 of Pfizer's products were regulated by FDA.
As different organizations will start trying to regulate relevant to them parts of Internet, the debate about where to draw the line is bound to happen. Where does the freedom of self-expression crosses the well-being of public. I personally think that in this case, when potentially harmful drugs can be misused - the more control the better. However, it is hard to interpret the true motives of pharmaceutical companies - are they concerned with public health, are they trying to protect their brand names and ensure that some cheap copy of their drugs doesn't ruin the trust for their products, or do they want more control over the distributors and revenue channels?
In general, regulating Internet in any way is a tricky topic. On one hand, there are illegal activities that most of us would want to prevent (like child pornography), however, there are definite cons that come with the power over tracking and controlling what users can and can't do.
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