The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether it needs to revamp guidance on how FDA-regulated manufacturers should deal with online misinformation about their products as the agency continues to contend with a deadly tide of falsehoods spreading on social media, Commissioner Robert Califf told STAT.
In an interview, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said the agency is grappling with how best to handle an explosion of misinformation, including vaccine skepticism that has worsened the toll of Covid-19 pandemic. While the agency is considering whether it can take on misinformation more head-on, he said the FDA might well be able to find a clear path to better support drug, vaccine, and device makers whose products are the targets of misinformation.
“Let’s say you have a company whose product is being maligned with misinformation, that company, it seems to me, does have a right to speak back about that,” Califf said, noting that the agency’s 2014 draft guidance on how drugmakers can use social media may need to be updated to reflect the current climate. He said the FDA would still need to be on guard against “companies taking license to go well beyond combating the misinformation and [instead] promoting inappropriately.”
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