Cynthia Phillips (right), director of regulatory advertising at Shire HGT, closed this year’s ePharma Summit with a conversation about managing regulatory risks in the world of Web 2.0. Here are some of her comments:

Is the Web promotional labeling? DDMAC does not want to tell us what it is thinking; it just wants to hit us when we mess up. The more we get into Web 2.0, the bigger liability we have. Is the Web truly promotional labeling, or is it DTC? And should Web promotion receive DTC regulations?

Too conservative? Pharma is slow to react, and it is under a lot of pressure. I personally would like to see the industry push the envelope in advertising.

Free speech If the dialogue on a social-network site turns off-label, we start getting into the First Amendment issue. How do you handle that, or do you stop the conversation at that point? The legal people I talk to are very tense about that.

Social networks as research I love the idea of monitoring social networks as marketing research, provided someone synthesizes it for you. That information is extremely valuable.