Grünenthal: LinkedIn ‘like’ treated as promotion of Qutenza to public and HCPs (AUTH/3177/3/19)

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Key facts

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Case	AUTH/3177/3/19
Parties	Anonymous v Grünenthal
Issue	Promotional use of LinkedIn; employee “like” disseminating a post about Qutenza (capsaicin)
Platform	LinkedIn
Medicine	Qutenza (capsaicin)
Key wording in post	“highly effective” and “a real alternative to the current standard of care”
Applicable Code year	2016
Complaint received	28 March 2019
Case completed	2 October 2019
Published	May 2020 Code of Practice Review
Breach clauses	4.1, 4.3, 4.9, 9.1, 9.9, 14.1, 26.1, 26.2, 28.1
No breach clauses	7.10, 16.1, 26.3
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 complainant (a “concerned UK health professional”) challenged a Grünenthal Group LinkedIn post about acquiring global rights for Qutenza (capsaicin).
The post described Qutenza as “a highly effective pain product” and “a real alternative to the current standard of care”, with a “Read more” link.
The post was created by Grünenthal GmbH (Germany). A UK employee “liked” the post on LinkedIn.
The Panel considered that the employee’s “like” would, on the balance of probabilities, have been disseminated to the employee’s LinkedIn connections.
The employee’s network included people who were not health professionals or other relevant decision makers, meaning the “like” could disseminate promotional content to the public.
The disseminated content to HCPs/decision makers lacked prescribing information and other required information and had not been certified for such use.
The Panel also considered whether a side-effect reporting statement was required for patients taking the medicine, and whether training requirements had been met.

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