How Facebook finds pharma companies their next patient

Facebook has become a go-to for pharmaceutical companies looking to target their drug advertisements to users who suffer from a specific illness, according to a May 6 report by The Markup.

The Markup's Citizen Browser Project collected Facebook data from thousands of users to identify how targeted pharmaceutical ads work on Facebook.

Nine details:

1. Pharmaceutical companies spent nearly $1 billion on Facebook mobile ads even though Facebook does not offer advertisers categories that identify people's health conditions, The Washington Post reported.
   
   
2. Advertisements for prescription pharmaceuticals were targeted at people with interests in topics like "oxygen" and "Diabetes mellitus awareness."
   
   
3. The term "awareness" was frequently used in targeting decisions made by advertisers. In some cases, it was in correlation with a user's membership in one of Facebook's support groups for a specific illness.
   
   
4. Zejula, a drug manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, is prescribed for patients with ovarian cancer. The drug was targeted at users who Facebook determined had an interest in "cancer awareness."
   
   
5. Dozens of other drug ads were targeted in a similar way. Piqray, a drug used in cancer treatment, was targeted at those with an interest in "National Breast Cancer Awareness Month," and Brilinta, a drug used to prevent strokes in patients with heart conditions, was shown to those with an interest in "stroke awareness."
   
   
6. Pharmaceutical drugs were also targeted to those with interests in key terms similar to health conditions, such as the antipsychotic drug, Latuda. Latuda is used to treat bipolar depression and was targeted to users with an interest in "therapy." Anoro, a drug used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was targeted to users interested in "cigarettes" or "oxygen."
   
   
7. It is unclear exactly how Facebook determines a user has an interest in terms like "oxygen" or "stroke awareness."
   
   
8. The social media giant has specific limits on how users can target health conditions. For example, advertisers cannot use sensitive personal health data to target their ads, such as a pharmacy uploading a list of customers with a specific illness to market to them on Facebook.
   
   
9. Facebook is not under a legal obligation to protect users' health information and is not bound by HIPAA.