The US the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is under pressure from pharmaceutical giants like Eli Lilly and Pfizer, for permission to expanding Internet use for product advertisements, including providing guidelines for marketing prescription drugs online.

While, drug manufacturing firms have been advertising on the Internet, they have received minimal success, as the ads rather than promoting individual medicines, mostly promote broader health or corporate initiatives, mainly because the industry fears running afoul of regulators.

Internet firms like Google, Yahoo and WebMD Health, seeking a bigger slice of the country’s largest ad categories, will also be attending Thursday’s hearing as FDA has been scrutinizing the drug makers’ digital marketing efforts.

Pharmaceutical advertising has remained a cash cow for traditional media like television and magazines, for the past several years, with drug firms spending $4.4-billion on prescription ads last year.

Establishing strict rules for drug advertising, FDA among other requirements, asks ads must mention the brand name of a prescription drug, including disclosures like what illness the drug is intended to treat, as well as, potential side effects. No specific standards for online marketing have been set by FDA, yet.