A.Menarini: UK employee’s accidental LinkedIn ‘like’ brought global pipeline press release into scope (breach of Clause 9.1)

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Key facts

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Case number	AUTH/3434/12/20
Company	A.Menarini
Complaint	Alleged promotion to the general public on LinkedIn (press release shared via LinkedIn post; UK employee ‘liked’ it)
Product / subject	SEL24/MEN1703 (investigational compound; AML; DIAMOND-01 trial pharmacodynamic data)
Channel	LinkedIn (Menarini Group post; employee personal account engagement)
Applicable Code year	2019
Complaint received	02 December 2020
Case completed	04 June 2021
Appeal	No appeal
Breach clauses	Clause 9.1
No breach clauses	Clause 26.1; Clause 2
Sanctions	Undertaking received; Additional sanctions: Not stated

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

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A concerned UK health professional complained about a Menarini Group LinkedIn post linking to a press release about SEL24/MEN1703 pharmacodynamic data from the DIAMOND-01 trial (ASH Annual Meeting poster).
The complainant said the post had been ‘liked’ by UK-based staff and provided a link to a named UK employee’s personal LinkedIn account.
Menarini said the post/press release was created and posted by global colleagues (1 December 2020) and the UK affiliate had no role in its generation, approval or publication.
Menarini said the UK employee accidentally clicked ‘like’, did not know how to remove it immediately, and later deleted the ‘like’ after receiving instructions.
The Panel considered that ‘liking’ on LinkedIn increases visibility to an individual’s connections and can amount to proactive dissemination; on the balance of probabilities this disseminated the post/press release to the employee’s (predominantly UK) network, bringing it within scope of the UK Code.
The press release described preliminary positive results and a manageable safety profile for an investigational compound under development for acute myeloid leukaemia.

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Breach of Clause 9.1 (high standards).
No breach of Clause 26.1 (promotion to the public) on a narrow technical point: the compound was not classified as a prescription only medicine at the time.
No breach of Clause 2 (discredit to the industry) as the circumstances did not warrant that level of censure.
No appeal.

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