AD AGE – Pharmaceutical companies, fearful of running afoul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's marketing guidelines, have virtually abandoned search ad marketing in the wake of the FDA's online ad crackdown earlier this year. According to a study from web metrics measurement firm ComScore, paid search ads by pharmaceutical companies dropped a whopping 84% between March 26 of this year and the end of June.

March 26 was the date the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications sent warning letters to 14 drug makers identifying 48 different brands as being in violation of the FDA's fair balance guidelines. The letters stated that sponsored-link advertisements for specific drugs were misleading due to the exclusion of risk information associated with the use of the drug -- even though the regulatory agency's guidelines are for print and broadcast, not online or social media.

Immediately after these letters were sent, pharmaceutical companies began to immediately pull search ads, including those ads that did obey the FDA’s “one-click rule” by directing Internet users to a site with a fair balance and appropriate risk information. In the first week after the letters were issued, the amount of paid ads plummeted by more than half, going from 10.5 million to 4.3 million.

It will be interesting to see where pharmaceutical companies will refocus their advertising efforts. Perhaps companies will shift their advertising focus to keyword domain names; current examples of this include GSK's diabetes.com, Johnson & Johnson's cancer.com, and Roche's weightloss.com.

The FDA is holding public hearings next month to begin the process of establishing internet advertising guidelines.

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