Allergan: Botox pack shots and award reposts on Instagram found to promote a POM to the public

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Key facts

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Case number	AUTH/3291/12/19
Case reference	AUTH/3291/12/19
Complainant	Owner and medical director of an aesthetics clinic (an aesthetics health professional)
Respondent/company	Allergan Limited
Product(s)	Botox (botulinum toxin type A); Juvederm (dermal filler, medical device)
Material/channel	Instagram (JuvedermUK corporate/patient-facing account Stories; employees’ personal Instagram accounts)
Key issue	Promotion of a prescription only medicine (Botox) to the public via pack shots and award-related reposts on social media; inadequate robustness of social media policies/SOPs and training records
Dates (received/completed if stated)	Complaint received: 17 December 2019; Case completed: 16 March 2020
Appeal	Not stated
Code year	Not stated
Breaches/clauses	Clauses 26.1, 9.1, 2
Sanctions	No explicit additional sanctions stated beyond the required undertaking/corrective actions described in the report

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

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An aesthetics clinic owner/medical director complained that Allergan Limited promoted Botox (botulinum toxin type A), a prescription only medicine (POM), on social media.
The complaint focused on content on the JuvedermUK patient-facing Instagram account (Juvederm is a dermal filler registered as a medical device) that included Botox pack shots.
Two Instagram Stories reposted on the JuvedermUK account contained Botox packaging: one still image with a Botox pack shot in the foreground, and one video where a Botox vial/carton appeared in the background for the final 4 seconds of a 14-second video.
The complainant also cited Instagram live-streaming posts/videos from the Aesthetics Awards 2019 uploaded to a senior employee’s personal Instagram page referring to Botox as “Injectable Product of the Year 2019”, and similar material posted by other team members.
Allergan said it had no intention to promote Botox to the public, stated the posts were brief/limited reach, and said it identified and removed the employee posts within 24 hours and reminded staff about requirements for social media and POMs.
Allergan acknowledged its third-party reposting process should have prevented reposting content containing Botox pack images and proposed corrective actions including making the reposting process a formal SOP, improving training record capture, and adding a second-person check before reposts went live.

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The Panel ruled that the two JuvedermUK Instagram Stories containing Botox pack shots amounted to promotion of a POM to the public on a platform used by members of the public.
The Panel ruled that the senior manager’s personal Instagram repost about Botox being “Injectable Product of the Year” (and its repost by a salesforce colleague) also promoted a POM to the public on the balance of probabilities.
The Panel found Allergan’s social media policy documents were not sufficiently robust/explicit regarding POM restrictions, including that the corporate reposting policy was not a formal SOP with accurate training records and that the personal social media SOP made no reference to POMs.
The Panel ruled breaches of Clauses 26.1, 9.1 and 2 (including that high standards had not been maintained and that Allergan had brought discredit upon and reduced confidence in the pharmaceutical industry).

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