FDA busts Kim Kardashian selfie for leaving out drug side effects

Goodbye, morning sickness; hello, legal action

Kim Kardashian is no stranger to Instagram promotion, but a recent post has landed her in hot water with an unexpected enemy: the Food and Drug Administration. In a letter dated August 7th, the FDA's Office of Prescription Drug Promotion requested that Kardashian take down a post promoting Diclegis, a drug that combats morning sickness. The office reviewed Kardashian's post in response to a complaint about its validity and found that it was "false and misleading... it omits material facts." Kardashian posted her bit of promotion at the end of July. It's since been removed from Instagram, but you can see it below thanks to a screencap from Forbes:

Forbes / Kim Kardashian / Instagram

Kardashian asks her followers to check with their doctors before taking Diclegis, but that wasn't enough of a warning to escape the FDA's scrutiny. The drug hasn't been studied in women with hyperemesis gravidarum, a pregnancy condition that leads to nausea, vomiting, and dehydration. It can also cause severe drowsiness. That combination of uncertainty and side effects wasn't clearly stated in Kardashian's post, and that was the basis of the FDA's ruling. This isn't the first complaint levied against the makers of Diclegis, either: Duchesnay (the drug's producer) was notified of an infraction in November 2013 when the drug was first announced. "OPDP is concerned that Duchesnay is continuing to promote Diclegis in a violative manner," the FDA wrote.

KARDASHIAN MAY NEED TO POST A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEA CULPA

In order to right its wrongs, Duchesnay probably needs to enlist Kardashian's help. The company has to respond in writing to the FDA's letter by August 21st, confirming that it'll comply with the agency's request. (According to The Washington Post, Duchesnay is already proceeding with a response.) More importantly, it has to "disseminate truthful, non-misleading, and complete corrective messages about the issues discussed in this letter to the audience(s) that received the violative promotional materials." The FDA is making this request because of Duchesnay's pattern of bad behavior.

What does this mean for Kardashian? If the government has its way, she'll be posting a photographic mea culpa sometime soon: "To the extent possible, corrective messaging should be distributed using the same media, and generally for the same duration of time and with the same frequency that the violative promotional material was disseminated."