Topic: Adverse Event Reporting

Now that the COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed globally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. A light that, while signaling a return to some sort of normalcy by year’s end, has put pharma companies in the public eye like no other time in recent memory. They are not only confronted with a complex environment of meticulous oversight of industry and government regulators but also a more complicated social media landscape.

It seems no good deed goes unpunished on social media.

Social media use is exploding, and the pharmaceutical industry could be in for a major headache.

With COVID-19 vaccines now in distribution, pharma brands are on high alert as they anticipate a surge of misinformation on social media.

As of July 2020, the number of global internet users has grown to 4.8 billion, which is more than half the world’s population. At the same time, digital advertising in pharma is expected to increase to a projected $10 billion for the year. This is because consumers are spending more time engaging with health content than content from any other industry, including news, finance, and travel—and are using social media to find it.