The beat goes on

Jun/06/2007 06:47 Filed in: Pharma Business
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Well the finger pointing continues with the Avandia data with continued media coverage most recently on the front page of today's New York Times. While some doctors are taking a 'wait and see" attitude it seems that GSK has already started to feel the effects of this story with declining sales. Meanwhile what are patients expected to think? Accusations and counter accusations are flying back and forth which has done little to make patients comfortable with treatment for Type II diabetes.


To GSK's credit they did run full page advertisements in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal this week with a letter to current patients but that does little to ease patients concerns that they might be at higher risk for potential lethal side effects. In addition they have posted, on Avanadia.com, a series of video on the products safety and recent issues. However these videos show Dr Anne Phillips a VP at GSK. Hello???? With everything the pharma industry has gone through in the last few months what makes GSK think that consumers are going to trust a VP from their company? Remember consumers are skeptical today and connected like never before. Already on several message boards people are expressing their concerns about Avandia and looking for other options.

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There is a lot more that GSK could have done to quiet the storm but they are taking a mass market approach rather then engaging consumers, and current customers. My guess is that sales will continue to decline and that Byetta and Actos will increase as they take share away from GSK. The beat goes on but in this case it seems that GSK has missed the drum in a lot of areas.

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