Taps for Vytorin?
Feb/20/2008 05:52 Filed in: Pharma
Business
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So is Vytorin headed down the same path as Avandia into the "I used to be a contender" pile of prescription drugs? I would think that the answer to that is yes. Even if Merck shows the drug to be more effective than other medications on the market there is a bigger issue here and that is the issue of broken trust between physicians and a pharma company that withheld data.
Believe it or not physicians are people too and they don't like to be misled by pharmaceutical companies who continue to promote products while sitting on data that may not put their products in the best light. Yes the media zeroed in on the Enhance study but it was only because of Merck's arrogance of deciding not to release the data so that they could "review the data points".
There was a time when pharma sales people could engage physicians in meaningful dialogue but that time has passed. Now pharma sales people are programmed to talk about promotional claims in detail aids. If a physician has questions the "programmed and rehearsed" response is usually the answer and if a physician wants more dialogue then he, or she, has to contact a Medical Liaison person who will have to "research the questions". Physicians don't have time for this runaround and that is why, according to Manhattan Research, more and more are turning to the Internet for medical information. You see after 8 years of school and 2-3 years of residency most physicians, believe it or not, can interrupt data ! While this may come as a shock to health care professional marketers they had better listen to the dynamics of a more informed customer, which includes doctors.
Vytorin may come back but with a new statin coming to the market that lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol and generic Lipitor on the horizon I believe that it will never achieve sales of a blockbuster or pre Vytoringate. All this because someone made the decision not to release data and forgot that transparency is the rule rather than the exception.
So is Vytorin headed down the same path as Avandia into the "I used to be a contender" pile of prescription drugs? I would think that the answer to that is yes. Even if Merck shows the drug to be more effective than other medications on the market there is a bigger issue here and that is the issue of broken trust between physicians and a pharma company that withheld data.
Believe it or not physicians are people too and they don't like to be misled by pharmaceutical companies who continue to promote products while sitting on data that may not put their products in the best light. Yes the media zeroed in on the Enhance study but it was only because of Merck's arrogance of deciding not to release the data so that they could "review the data points".
There was a time when pharma sales people could engage physicians in meaningful dialogue but that time has passed. Now pharma sales people are programmed to talk about promotional claims in detail aids. If a physician has questions the "programmed and rehearsed" response is usually the answer and if a physician wants more dialogue then he, or she, has to contact a Medical Liaison person who will have to "research the questions". Physicians don't have time for this runaround and that is why, according to Manhattan Research, more and more are turning to the Internet for medical information. You see after 8 years of school and 2-3 years of residency most physicians, believe it or not, can interrupt data ! While this may come as a shock to health care professional marketers they had better listen to the dynamics of a more informed customer, which includes doctors.
Vytorin may come back but with a new statin coming to the market that lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol and generic Lipitor on the horizon I believe that it will never achieve sales of a blockbuster or pre Vytoringate. All this because someone made the decision not to release data and forgot that transparency is the rule rather than the exception.
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