‘Patient influencers’ paid by Big Pharma to mislead followers

‘Patient influencers’ paid by Big Pharma to mislead followers

NEW YORK POST

There’s no better way to reach an audience today than through social media — and Big Pharma is well aware of that.

The video-sharing platform TikTok, for example, is being flooded with videos of users testifying to wellness through prescription drugs, with hashtags like #adhd (22.3B views), #ozempic (675.1M views) and #wegovy (259.3M views) consistently trending as of late.

Now, experts are warning about this misleading tactic by drugmakers, in paying popular social media users to espouse their products under the guise of honest reviews, in a new study published this week in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

These so-called patient influencers, or patient “advocates,” are social media influencers who use their platform to promote pharmaceutical medications and/or medical devices.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder analyzed 26 recent interviews with patient influencers, who had been diagnosed with conditions such as lupus, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease, asthma, HIV, celiac disease, chronic migraines and perimenopause.

“The patient influencers wanted to be an accurate, trustworthy source for their followers and did not ever want to mislead other patients,” wrote the researchers of an encouraging finding in their study.

#ozempic 675.1M view on TikTokThe #ozempic has 675.1M views on TikTok as the FDA reported a shortage of the diabetes drug due to increased demand.  TikTok

According to researchers’ assessment, the majority (69%) had previously collaborated with a pharmaceutical company in some way — serving on advisory boards, speaking to physicians and researchers or communicating with key audiences — but appeared to have honorable intentions in spreading awareness and information about their condition.

About 15% of the cohort said they share news releases from pharmaceutical companies with their followers if they deem the information to be relevant, and 12% claimed to cite medical studies in explaining information to their audience.

Only five of the patient influencers reported they’d never shared information about drugs, believing it would be “borderline unethical” to do so. Several, however, weren’t too ashamed to take money from drugmakers.

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Header featured image (edited) credit:  Lady/bottle of pills/Daily Mail

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