Nearly 90% of teens and young adults who use social media say they use it to find information about their healthcare. However, as pharmaceutical marketers have shifted more and more of their budgets towards selling their products on social media, especially via paid influencers, the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation has lagged behind.

A new landmark legislation, The Protecting Patients from Deceptive Drug Ads Online Act, introduced by Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Braun (R-IN), directs the FDA to update and enforce its regulations for promoting prescription drugs on social media. It does this by focusing the agency’s attention specifically on deceptive or misleading communications by telehealth companies, social media influencers, and health providers.

This act is a direct result of the work of Generation Patient, led by its founder and BMJ patient advisor, Sneha Dave. This legislation was particularly noteworthy because it was heavily influenced by patient advocacy, especially from a young patient group. It’s not often that patients lead the charge for legislation like this.