2768. Does Social Media Contribute to Knowledge About Vaccine Safety?

Abstract

BackgroundSocial media is frequently used to share medical information. Current European regulatory guidance for the pharmaceutical industry calls for reporting valid adverse events (AE) derived from social media as well as consideration of non-valid AEs. This guidance is followed when our company utilizes social media related to any company products and interests. Here we evaluate its application to vaccines.MethodsPosts collected from all screened social media sources (company owned, or company reviewed) were examined (August 1, 2017–February 28, 2019) to identify safety-related information pertaining to any of its 14 licensed vaccines. Posts were classified as valid cases (i.e., containing information about company product, AE, and identifiable reporter), non-valid cases (i.e., company product, AE, but missing an identifiable reporter), or not relevant (no safety-related information; not further analyzed). Valid cases were added to the company’s safety database; non-valid cases were reviewed for trends requiring further analysis. Both, valid and non-valid cases, were analyzed as part of routine safety surveillanceResultsAmong 69,682 vaccine-related posts reviewed, 285 (0.4%) were valid; 11,464 (16.5%) were non-valid; 47,966 (83.1%) were not relevant. Most non-valid cases concerned the company’s 4-valent (8,934 [78%]) or 9-valent (1,420 [12%]) human papillomavirus vaccines, followed by its measles-mumps-rubella (336 [2.9%]), pneumococcal (282 [2.5%]), and herpes zoster (246 [2.1%]) vaccines. Review of data from selected temporal spikes in posts demonstrated that they were usually attributable to increased reposts of an original post or to personal views, rather than containing incremental factual new safety data.ConclusionFewer than 1% of posts from relevant social media sources contained sufficient information to be considered valid cases. No new safety signals were identified for any of the vaccines from social media cases (valid or non-valid). Among posts containing safety information, the nature of this information tends to be redundant or sentimental, precluding meaningful safety analyses.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.