The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has ruled Vertex broke the U.K. drug regulations with a LinkedIn post, prompting the big biotech to review its social media policies.
An anonymous healthcare professional contacted the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) after seeing a Vertex LinkedIn post about the authorization of a drug in Great Britain. Typically, the PMCPA would investigate the complaint itself. However, Vertex doesn’t accept the jurisdiction of the PMCPA, leading the self-regulatory body to refer the complaint to the MHRA.
The PMCPA referred the complaint because it could be considered a breach of U.K. regulations on human medicine advertising, putting it within the remit of the MHRA. Specifically, the regulatory agency looked at whether the post breached the ban on ads to the general public that are likely to encourage patients to request a particular prescription-only medicine (POM).
The MHRA said the complainant was “concerned that the post was seen by patients, who had been asking for availability of treatment because the post said the POM had been approved by the MHRA.” Vertex had a different view, arguing that the material was posted on a corporate channel and intended for global investors. The MHRA sided with the healthcare professional.
In explaining its view, the agency said that the “information was both accessible to the general public without signposting safeguards as to the intended investor audience and was promotional in nature through the emotive language used in the post.” The information didn’t appear to be tailored to investors, the MHRA said, and the “language could impact someone affected by the disease in question.”
Vertex’s European subsidiary told the MHRA it would review its social media policies. The agency said the review is intended to ensure future social media posts are “targeted and signposted appropriately for the intended audience and do not use language that would be considered to be promotional in nature.”