During the last week of December, the FDA quietly released “Guidance for Industry Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information About Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices.” The document mentions “electronic media” and includes Twitter, YouTube and blogs in examples. While it isn’t social media guidelines, it does provide insights to be gleaned from reading between the lines. Former FDA official Peter Pitts shares his perspective in Medical Marketing & Media.

What’s interesting is the FDA’s acknowledgment that “it can be in the best interest of public health for a firm to respond to unsolicited requests for information about off-label uses of the firm’s products that are addressed to a public forum, as other participants in the forum who offer responses may not provide or have access to the most accurate and up-to-date information about the firm’s products.”

One key point: the guidance specifies that any public response to unsolicited requests should be from medical or scientific representatives, not sales and marketing. To learn more, read Siren’s blog post.

The sixth “Rare Is Different” blog post from Siren Interactive recently appeared in PharmaPhorum, a global hub for constructive industry debate, thought leadership and sharing of ideas. In this, the final post in the series, Siren Interactive Founder and President Wendy White explains why the current business climate is conducive to pharma companies developing rare disease therapies. She also notes how these therapies often have a positive impact on advancing established treatments for more mainstream diseases that affect larger numbers of the general population; and how patient advocates push government, business and science to a common ground that leads to innovation at the margins.