Kim Kardashian draws ire from FDA for drug endorsement on Instagram
Kim Kardashian West’s Instagram account is drawing attention, although not the kind she likes.
The Food and Drug Administration sent her a warning letter for a picture she posted in which she’s posing with a morning sickness drug. Not only ddi she fail to disclose the drug’s side effects to her 42.4 million followers, she also broke her own vow to keep her account off-limits to brands.
Kardashian tweeted and posted to Instagram a picture on July 19 of a medication called Diclegis, which boasts it’s the only “FDA approved medicine for treatment of morning sickness.” Since she was so “excited and happy” with it, she wrote on Instagram that she’s “partnering” with them to promote it.
Well, the endorsement didn’t sit well with the FDA proving that even the governmental agency keeps up with the Kardashians, albeit slowly. The agency slammed her for not including risk and side effects information on her Instagram caption in a five-page letter dated Aug. 7.
Kardashian included a (non-clickable) link to a safety webpage, but that wasn’t enough.
“By omitting the risks associated with Diclegis, the social media post misleadingly fails to provide material information about the consequences that may result from the use of the drug and suggests that it is safer than demonstrated,” the FDA said.
The Instagram post has been deleted as of Tuesday afternoon, but the tweet has not.
Diclegis’ maker, Duchesnay, told CNBC that it takes government warnings “very seriously” and admitted that Kardashian’s Instagram post needs to be “in accordance with applicable rules and regulations.” That explains why the Instagram post was deleted.
Now that she has complied with the FDA’s request, her Instagram account is back to favoring selfies over sponsors — for now.
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