With drug companies increasingly use Facebook and other social media platforms to advertise, patient advocates are urging lawmakers to rethink HIPAA laws, The Washington Post reported.
Ads promoting prescription drugs to treat depression, HIV and cancer can be found on Facebook, and spending on Facebook mobile ads by pharmaceutical and healthcare brands reached nearly a billion dollars in 2019, according to data cited by the Post.
Pfizer, Allergan, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline were among the top 10 spenders on Facebook mobile ads in 2019, according to the data.
HIPAA doesn't cover drug companies or social media websites, and it also doesn't cover data brokers that can collect information from prescriptions, insurance claims or EHRs as long as they don't include the patient's full name or address, according to the Post.
Patient advocates are worried that ads targeting people for specific drugs could cause embarrasement or discrimination, or affect insurance rates or service offerings.
Facebook told the Post its policies prohibit using medical history for ad targeting, but other forms of data could be used to identify potential patients. As an example, geographic data could be used to target communities with a high percentage of people with substance abuse disorders, according to the Post.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals makes the drug Vyvanse to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is advertised on Facebook. The company told the Post that it doesn't have information about a person's past or present prescriptions to use for ad targeting.
"Notably, it is not possible, and we do not engage an individual on any social media platform based on what treatments they are prescribed," a Takeda spokesperson told the Post.
Eric Perakslis, former chief information officer at the FDA, told the Post that targeted drug advertising can help pharmaceutical companies reach the people most in need of their drugs and that the social aspect of advertising could help with drug adherence.
Read the full article here.