Social Media Policy

Roche Canada’s social media pages are a great way to foster engagement between Roche Canada and our community: patients, patient groups, employees, healthcare providers, scientists, and anyone else looking to join the conversation.  With that in mind, there are some guidelines we need to follow, and ask that you do too when interacting with our social media pages.

This isn’t the best place to talk about our products, or those of others

Roche Canada must follow strict regulations that govern our industry and the way we talk about our products. What this means is that our social media channels are not the appropriate place to report side effects, to make complaints or suggestions, or to share experiences about the use of our products or patient assistance programs. This does not mean we do not want to hear about these issues, but these types of concerns are best handled by trained representatives:

Diagnostics:

Pharmaceutical:

Patient Programs:

Please note that on Roche Canada-controlled social media pages, we will remove product-related posts where possible, including posts about others’ products.

We want you to report adverse events, but social media is not the best place to do so

If you have a suspected side effect or problem to report regarding one of our pharmaceutical products, please contact [email protected].  To report a health-related incident with a medical device or diagnostic product, please contact [email protected].

You can also report side effects or problems with pharmaceutical or medical devices directly to Health Canada by going at www.healthcanada.gc.ca/medeffect.

If you do post an adverse event via a Roche Canada social media channel, will report the event and may follow up with you directly.

Keep it on the up and up

This community is meant to provide a platform to engage the community in a thoughtful and respectful manner. To keep it going, we ask that you refrain from any use of profanity as well as offensive or discriminatory language. We understand passion - express yourself by all means, but do so with respect for everyone involved in the conversation. Otherwise we’re going to remove the post and/or block the poster.

Keep it on topic

We're not looking to censor you, but please note that postings that are clearly off-topic, contain unsupported accusations, or discuss competitors, financial matters, ongoing legal matters, regulatory issues, or other elements of our business are not appropriate and will be removed where possible.  Also, ‘spammers’ who attempt to target our followers to offer goods or services will find their posts removed and/or their accounts blocked or reported.

Social media is not a forum for giving medical advice

Though many who follow and interact on our social media channels are involved in the larger healthcare community (doctors, patients, scientists, etc.) this is not a forum for giving or receiving medical advice. Even though the intent is good, unsolicited, unverified medical advice can be dangerous.

For Canadians only

Our social media postings are developed to comply with Canadian law and are targeted to Canadians only. Those accessing these postings from outside of Canada do so at their own risk.

Your views are your own

Roche Canada’s social media channels are open to commentary by members of the public.  These public comments are not made by Roche Canada and do not necessarily reflect our views.  We do not endorse or approve of any of these public comments, and are not responsible for the information, references and opinions they contain.

Privacy

We do not aim to store or use your social media username or other personal details, unless a side effect or product issue has been reported by you, in which case we would need to reach out to you for more information, and would store and use identifying information such as your name, location, and health related information in order to comply with our obligations to Health Canada. Kindly note that we are using third party service providers to help us manage your comments and messages, which means that they too would have access to any personal information you share with us. Such third party service providers are contractually bound to ensure adequate protection and security of your personal information.

Visit our Privacy Policy for more information on Roche Canada’s commitment to privacy.

Fine Print

Lastly, from our Legal Department, please be aware that Roche reserves the right to delete any posting or block a poster at its sole discretion.  Also, by posting content on a Roche Canada social media channel, you agree that we may copy, modify, edit, crop, highlight, and/or republish your content for any purpose.  

Contact Us

If you’re interested in sharing comments or feedback outside the scope of these channels, or the drug information resources outlined above, you can send a message through the form available in the “Contact” tab on RocheCanada.com.