Anonymous v Allergan (AUTH/2455/11/11): Botox tweet treated as public advertising of a POM

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Key facts

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Case	AUTH/2455/11/11
Parties	Anonymous v Allergan
Issue	Tweet naming Botox and suggesting doing something “around stroke rehab” sent to a patient organisation contact; treated as public advertising of a POM
Product	Botox (botulinum toxin)
Channel	Twitter (personal account)
Complaint received	10 November 2011
Case completed	13 December 2011
Applicable Code year	2011
Breach clauses	9.1 and 22.1
Clause 2	No breach
Sanctions	Undertaking received; Additional sanctions: Not stated
Appeal	No appeal

Reviewed by Dr Anzal Qurbain (FFPM) — ABPI Final Signatory

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An anonymous, non-contactable complainant reported a tweet sent by an Allergan employee to a patient organisation contact.
The tweet named the prescription-only medicine (POM) Botox and included the phrase: “... we could do something around stroke rehab ...”.
Allergan said the employee used a personal Twitter account, intended the message to be private (like an email), and did not realise it would be visible to others (including followers).
Once identified, the tweet was deleted and the Twitter account was closed.
Allergan stated the tweet was not approved/authorised, investigated internally, and updated training/policy emphasis on personal social media use.

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The Panel ruled the tweet amounted to advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public because tweets are public in nature.
Breach of Clause 22.1 was ruled (as acknowledged by Allergan).
Breach of Clause 9.1 was ruled (high standards had not been maintained).
No breach of Clause 2 was ruled (the Panel did not consider the case warranted that level of censure).
No appeal.

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