If someone out in there in the wild wonderful world of the web takes a potshot at your drug or device, the first thing to do is take a deep breath and think. Any crisis communications executive worth her salt will tell you it’s often best to let the attacker eat silence rather than draw more attention to their criticism or cheap shot.

But if the criticism is relentless, or damaging and unfair, if it looks like it’s gaining traction, then a measured response can be part of the solution.

The FDA just released a guidance that it says “responds to (among other things) stakeholder requests for specific guidance regarding a firm’s voluntary correction of misinformation when that misinformation is created or disseminated by an independent third party.” In other words, how to fight back fairly.

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