I have been devoting a lot of coverage this year to Internet health marketing in general and the specific issues, especially around regulation. I have called out FDA for malregulation of banner ads and social media.

However, FDA's latest sweeping action on search advertising (via CNN Money)makes me believe the agency is launching an all-out war on Internet marketing. The ruling targets 14 of the top pharmaceutical companies ordering them to immediately stop search marketing campaigns for 48 drugs.

I come to defend pharmas risking FDA wrath for being too vocal

First, what are the specifics of this FDA ruling and why do I believe it is so wrong and abusive? In essence the agency is claiming that the text ads, served up through paid search lack "sufficient" warning information. To quote the CNN story:

The FDA said in strongly worded letters to the companies that the ads are misleading because they omit risk information associated with the products.

Companies that received the letters include Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB), Sanofi- Aventis (SNY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Some of the letters include complaints about multiple drugs. For instance, a letter to Pfizer Inc. (PFE) mentions six drugs, including its anti-smoking drug Chantix and the arthritis medicine Celebrex.

Biogen received a warning letter for its multiple-sclerosis drug Tysabri. The ads say "A Multiple Sclerosis Treatment That's Different from the Others" or "Satisfied with your MS Medication or Looking for Something Different?" but don't include any risk information.

"Their casual approach to Tysabri treatment is extraordinary in light of the potentially lethal risks of the drug and the stringent controls over its distribution," the FDA said in its letter to Biogen on March 26. The letter was posted on the agency's Web site Friday.

Biogen's ad includes a link to the Web site for the drug, which does contain the relevant risk information. The FDA said the link "does not mitigate the misleading omission of risk information from these promotional materials."

The letter reveals FDA's unreasonable attitude and ignorance about how consumers interact with online advertising. Unfortunately, given their dictatorial powers over the industry with so little accountability, there are few incentives for drugmakers to speak up, challenge the agency and risk further punishment.

The real question is just how you define sufficient warning in text ads

I get the impression that no one at FDA has given much thought to the format of Internet advertising and they keep trying to apply antiquated rules from the last century, clinging to the mistaken belief that they need no rewriting. To educate these ignoramuses, I should point out that a search ad consists of a 25- character title and two lines of 35-character descriptions.

The purpose of these ads is not to tell web searchers everything about a product, including a kitchen sink, but to get them to click to a landing page that would provide this information. Most drugs warnings surely need over 100 characters and it is irresponsible of FDA to demand that every text ad include them. In fact, most of the cited companies did in fact put the necessary warnings on landing pages.

Specific ad text samples cited in the warning (bolded in the quote above) are factual, reasonable and do nothing to misrepresent the risks. They do not go overboard is making any unreasonable promises. They are appropriately designed to elicit searcher's curiosity to click the ad and learn more. They are in no position to mislead and cause harm. They are simply the first step to learning.

FDA emperor has no clothes, but pharmas are afraid to say it aloud

It is reasonable to guess that the motivation of FDA's action has nothing to do with the substance of protecting the consumers. The sweeping language and targeting of the letter conveys impression of an agency flexing muscles and putting up a political show to please their new masters. Staging this Potemkin village while ignoring the need for substantive rewrite of the regulations for the Internet age shows just how out of touch FDA is with the modern medical media and marketing.

Anyone with a stake in modernizing health marketing for the Internet age, should be calling out FDA bureaucrats for their harmful actions.