AUTH/3478/2/21: Boehringer Ingelheim—employees ‘liked’ LinkedIn post about investigational COVID-19 antibody (No breach)

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Key facts

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Case number	AUTH/3478/2/21
Company	Boehringer Ingelheim Limited
Complaint	Alleged promotion of unlicensed medicines on LinkedIn (employees ‘liked’ a news story about BI 767551 entering clinical phase)
Complainant	Anonymous (self-described health professional)
Platform	LinkedIn (third-party article link)
Product/subject	BI 767551 (investigational SARS‑CoV‑2 neutralising antibody; Phase 1/2a trials)
Trials referenced	NCT04631705; NCT04631666
Panel view on scope	Employees’ ‘likes’ proactively disseminated the material to connections; post and linked article were in scope of the UK Code
Applicable Code year	2019
Clauses considered	2; 3.1; 9.1; 26.1; 26.2
Outcome	No breach
Complaint received	22 February 2021
Case completed	7 September 2021
Appeal	No appeal

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

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An anonymous complainant (self-described health professional) alleged Boehringer Ingelheim employees’ LinkedIn activity was unethical and promoted an unlicensed medicine to health professionals and the public.
The complainant linked to a LinkedIn item stating that a named person “likes this news story which mentions Boehringer Ingelheim ‘New SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody enters clinical phase’”, linking to an article (medicalxpress.com).
The article referenced an investigational antibody, BI 767551, described as a SARS‑CoV‑2 neutralising antibody administered via inhalation, entering Phase 1/2a trials (NCT04631705 and NCT04631666).
The Panel found the original article had been ‘liked’ by two Boehringer Ingelheim UK employees without the company’s knowledge or consent.
The Panel considered that ‘liking’ on LinkedIn can proactively disseminate content to connections and therefore brought the post and linked article within the scope of the UK Code.
Boehringer Ingelheim investigated, the post was unliked/deleted, one employee retrained, and a company-wide reminder was issued (4 March 2021) reinforcing its personal social media SOP and training.

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No breach of the Code was ruled.
No breach of Clauses 26.1 or 26.2: the compound was investigational and not a prescription only medicine.
No breach of Clause 3.1: the Panel did not consider that a medicine had been promoted prior to marketing authorisation given the early development stage and clinical-trial-only availability.
No breach of Clauses 9.1 and 2 followed from the above rulings.

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