FDA won't bend on promotion guidances

WASHINGTON - The FDA last week reiterated its prohibitions on free dissemination of information by product sponsors. The publication of final versions of guidance documents about dissemination of articles and reference texts by manufacturers of FDA-regulated products as the agency is scheduled to convene on Wednesday a two-day meeting about promotion of FDA-regulated medical products on the Internet.

The final documents, "Guidance to Industry on Dissemination of Reprints of Certain Published, Original Data" and "Guidance for Industry Funded Dissemination of Reference Texts," were published in the Federal Register...