Apr 2007
Pharma Blog | Mar 2007
I'm a DTC Marketer
Apr/26/2007 08:02 DTC Environment Permalink
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I'm a DTC marketer and proud of the job that I do. There are principles that I live by and maybe it's time for others to think about their own principles before making decisions that could impact the lives of thousands of patients. At some point in everyone's career you are going to have a draw a line in the sand for what you beleive. It could be a matter of getting a paycheck or losing a job but we all have to held accountable to the highest standard; ourselves. Here is a list of the principles which I use everyday in my career as a pharma and health DTC marketer.



My Guiding Principles:


1. The customer is at the center of everything I do: If it doesn't benefit my customer then why do it in an age when consumers have all the power?


2. I believe my job is to educate and inform customers about my brand in a relevant and meaningful way.


3. I will inform my customers about the good and the bad in language they understand. I will try to simply the label language so that they can understand their risks of using my product.


4. When is doubt about conveying information put yourself in your customers shoes and ask "would I want to know if I was using the product".


5. Everything I do I do just like a customer was sitting in my office looking over my shoulder.


6. I will separate the promotional content from factual content.


7. I believe that my product when used correctly can improve the quality of my patients life.


8. I will provide my customers with fair and balanced information and won't try to "sell" them. Customers are too smart for sales and marketing talk.


9. If my patients/customers are concerned than I am concerned and will do my best to let them know what is going on.


10. I will listen to what is being said by my customers and try and use resources at my disposal to provide them with answers that matter.


11. Finally, if I feel that someone is risking my customers health by manipulating or holding back data I will speak up and create waves. I will ensure that everyone in the organization puts themselves in our customers place and asks "what would they want to know". At the end of the day I will not compromise my customers health for financial gain.


We all have to make choices at some point in our careers and I have made the decision that I will not compromise my beliefs or principles. I have worked with marketers who are more interested in shining their own stars than doing what is best for patients but in the end their stars will burn out. DTC marketers need to think about what they WILL and WON'T do in the interest on their customers. At the end of the day it's not about company slogans or marketing positioning statements it's about being held accountable at every level of the organization.

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Cialis.com number one in driving conversions
Apr/20/2007 12:14 Permalink
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Lilly's Cialis.com was identified as the pharmaceutical product site with the highest percent of visitors requesting a prescription after visiting, a new study says. And why not ? When I developed the website I did exhaustive research into what customers wanted on the website and included content written by thought leaders. This is more evidence that a good interactive strategy can provide a great ROI if it is done right.



It has been over a year since I left Lilly but the website I developed with my agency hasn't changed at all. I included content from Harvard Medical School, and articles written by physicians on a variety of subjects that have to do with ED. As the site evolved I learned that a lot of people were worried about getting SPAM so I even included some copy on Spyware prevention and it quickly became one of the top 10 pages on the site.


A CRM Metrix study that we had retained clearly showed that there was a lift in intent to ask for an Rx in people who visited the site vs. those who did not. Yet when I left the company I found that my online budget had been axed in favor of TV? Even today the only updates to the site have been some video modules while the content and structure of the site remain the same.


I wanted Cialis.com to provide answers to couples who were experiencing troubles because of ED. I learned via research the pain that these men and their partners were going through and believed that we could help them. The DTC team that I was part of was truly a best of class team and frankly I am extremely proud to have been able to be part of the experience. A nice looking site doesn't mean anything unless it meets the customers needs and I believe Cialis.com meets those needs and now the data proves it once again.

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Does Pharma Zoom?
Apr/20/2007 12:01 Pharma Business Permalink
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James Citrin's book, Zoom, details how some exceptional companies are navigating the road to the next economy. Of course pharma is nowhere to be found on the list of exceptional companies and you shouldn't be surprised. Pharmaceutical marketing is stuck in an age of old marketing practices where spending mega dollars on TV seems to be the only tactic they know.


Mr. Citrin states that in order to excel in the new economy, business leaders need to master six basic strategies:


1. Be capable of doing everything at speed (Pharma marketing has two speeds..slow and dead slow)

2. Create a true learning organization (A lot of pharma companies do have "shared learnings" but few learn from innovators outside the industry. While smart marketers are learning how to leverage consumer generated media, pharma marketers are developing bad DTC).

3. Obsess over the needs of the customer (Like pharma could ever care about the customer. It's all about ROI and driving Rx's not satisfying customer needs).

4. Reward risk taking (FDA..NOV = Trouble...enough said)

5. Learn to live with greater uncertainty (Pharma has no choice and seems willing to let the environment take it where it wants to go !)

6. Master the art of deal making and partnerships (pharma companies don't talk to each other even when it is for the patients good)

Is it any wonder that pharma marketing is looked upon as nonexistent? The more things change the more pharma marketers seem stuck in a rut and it's awful deep.
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Aranesp: Death of a blockbuster
Apr/17/2007 06:20 Pharma Business Permalink
Amgen Inc.'s drug Aranesp didn't reduce the need for blood transfusions in anemic cancer patients and was linked to a nearly 45% increase in deaths compared with patients taking a placebo. That's really bad news for Amgen the maker of Aranesp but there are a number of issues that go a lot deeper here. When did Amgen know and why didn't this data show up in the initial, and ongoing, clinical trials? Lot's of questions that need to be answered and someone needs to be held accountable.


Legislators in Congress are going to use the Aranesp example of things that can go wrong when bad decisions are made. Amgen's CFO has resigned, or was shown the exit, but frankly that is not enough. Did the CFO hold back the release of clinical trial information because of financial considerations of Amgen stock? If so he needs to held criminally liable as do the other people who were involved in the decision. The CEO must also be held accountable and shown the door as this type of behavior starts at the top and can be inbred through the whole organization.

How can this happen in a world where everything is transparent and paper trails are everywhere? It starts with a belief that shareholders and investors are more important than patients. It tells me that Amgen may talk the talk about patients being important but somewhere the chain broke that people believe that dollars are what drives pharma not successful patient outcomes. I'm sure that Congress is going to have a field day with this one...

The Amgen story that is coming out of Thousand Oaks is going to be a lot more damage to an industry that is already under fire from all sides. People make up a company but somewhere along the way Amgen has hired people who believe that their wallets are more important than patient health and that is beyond reprehensible.



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DTC National: The blind leading the blind
Apr/13/2007 01:25 DTC Environment Permalink
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The DTC National just wrapped up and although I didn't attend it seems that once again it's the same old show with DTC marketers. More case studies, more "we did this" and this was the result. There were some people who tried to make DTC marketers aware that the familiar landscape is changing and changing dramatically but I am sure that most of this fell on deaf ears. DTC marketers haven't yet realized that the power has shifted to consumers and that marketers messages are largely being ignored. Still with TV dying a slow death the media buyers should be thankful that there are so many stupid people in DTC marketing who continue to worship the almighty TV spots
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More and more people are getting used to time shifting thanks to Steve Jobs and Apple. You see time is the new currency and consumer like watching things according to THEIR schedule not the TV Guide. More and more people are using DVR's and of those people most skip commercials (DUH!). Of course DTC marketers continue to pontificate the end of the 60 second spot and wonder what they can do to break through the clutter. Cialis commercials continue to run (yawn) as well as Neulasta (double yawn) and the competitors in the cholesterol category. Marketers continue to analyze the impact of these spots and manipulate data to show outrageous ROI's (400%?) to senior managers who all too often don't understand consumer marketing.

DTC Marketers Still Behind the Mainstream

As more and more premiere marketers, like P&G, allocate more money to the web and less to TV DTC marketers produce really bad DTC spots like Rozerem. I once asked why this was happening but after talking to a number of colleagues in phara marketing I think I have a pretty good idea as to what's going on. Here are the reasons that DTC marketers continue to ignore the web as I see them:

1. They don't understand the Web: The web is a pull channel and marketers just can't get that through their heads. They would rather expose you to TV spots on the website or lengthy videos that take a long time to load even with broadband. If consumers don't like what you say they are gone with a click of the mouse.

2. They don't understand how to measure the impact of online programs: Web analytics are getting more and more sophisticated. They can tell you how people are thinking when they come to your website and what information drives conversion. The key is that you have to have people who are eMarketers not IT people set up these measurement criteria because a basic understanding of consumer behavior is needed.

3. The budget drives the strategy: More and more marketers are spending a lot more online and with the basic laws of supply and demand premium placements on websites is becoming more and more expensive. Media planners don't know how to integrate the Web or measure the impact of online ads or purchased key words.

4. Once the website is launched I'm done: If anyone ever tells you that then you know they are talking from ignorance. As you learn more and more about your customers needs and what information drives conversion you need to continually optimize the website to make it more user friendly and drive business objectives.

5. TV is glamorous: When programs like American Idol are number one you know that TV programming has gone down hill. Lots of money very little ROI.

6. Hire eMarketing people who are passionate about what they do: I'll take a passionate person over a "competent" person any day of the week. I can't tell you the number of basic eMarketing questions I get from people that cause me to ask "what is going on here?".

OK, I've ranted enough but frankly how many more times do DTC marketers need to attend these events and listen with closed ears. Agencies continue to present compelling reasons to move more dollars online but marketers are either too stupid to listen or just don't get it. Maybe there should be a moratorium on DTC marketing so DTC marketers can have a chance to catch up on a consumer drive world that has passed them bye...
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A new tactic for the FDA - Are they overstepping their authority?
Apr/11/2007 06:31 Pharma Business Permalink
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The Food and Drug Administration said proposed prescription painkillers should fill an unmet medical need for patients who have no other "relatively safer" alternatives, suggesting Merck & Co.'s bid to have a Vioxx-like successor drug approved in the U.S. faces a tough road. But who is to say that a new drug fills an unmet medical need for patients who have no other "relatively safer" alternatives ? This author feels that this action by the FDA is a dangerous precedent that could quickly lead to major issues for consumers, insurers and pharma companies.


I used to take Celebrex for joint pain until I read information on the Celebrex website that said one of the potential side effects could be "intestinal bleeding or death". When I first received the Rx for Celebrex I received a letter from my health insurer informing me that OTC Ibuprofen (store brand no less) worked just as well as Celebrex and costs a lot less. I switched to Advil but the key point here is that it was MY decision based upon the risks I was willing to take from information on all types of pain relievers.

I know, as all consumers should know, that all prescription medications have risks and potential side effects. I can work with my HCp to determine what is best for me but at the end of the day I am the one who makes my healthcare decisions. To be honest Celebrex worked better for me on my joint pain than OTC products but I did notice some stomach discomfort when I used Celebrex. Rather than risk what I perceive to be more serious problems I decided that ibuprofen will work well while not providing any possible GI problems. I don't want the FDA making these decisions for me I want to make them myself with input from my HCP and no amount of DTC advertising is going to change my mind. DTC ads may enlighten me as to new products or treatment options but I am the one who will go to the product.com website and look at the side effects and warnings to determine if the risk is acceptable for me.

The FDA obviously does not believe that consumers are smart enough to research products on their own even though traffic to health websites, including prescription medications, keeps increasing. Under this new guideline, unmet medical need for patients who have no other "relatively safer" alternatives, products like Ambien might not have made it to the market. If Pfizer informed the FDA that Lipitor, the world's biggest prescription drug, patients were reporting more side effects would the FDA require Pfizer to take it off the market in favor of other cholesterol lowering medications?

This is wrong direction for the FDA to take. Instead they should be working with the drug industry to continually educate and inform consumers about the risks of approved prescription drugs. They should not determine if other "safer alternatives" are available because under that guideline some supplements may work better than prescription drugs with less side effects thus the Rx should be taken off the market. Consumer have the power now and we don't need the FDA to limit the choices WE want to make in OUR treatments.

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Being first in the inhaled insulin market is not an advantage for Pfizer
Apr/10/2007 06:09 Pharma Business Permalink
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Could Pfizer have an expensive failure on their hands with Exubera, the first inhaled insulin? It seems like a lot of people think so including some Wall Street analysts who are revising the sales forecast for Exubera way down. Pfizer has changed the selling of Exubera from the pain management division to the CV division but what Pfizer hasn't learned that in order for a product to be adopted by the market it needs to be easy to use and convenient. Exubera unfortunately doesn't have any of these traits and companies like Lilly which have inhaled insulin in development are taking notes from Pfizer's mistakes.



According to an article in today's New York Times:


But Pfizer’s marketing may not be enough to overcome the medical, economic, practical and legal concerns that have hurt Exubera. In theory, the drug’s biggest advantage over standard injectable insulin is that it is more convenient and does not require needle pricks. In reality, though, the Exubera inhaler is bulky and can be hard to use, doctors say. The device is nearly as large as a tennis ball can when it is open, and must be repeatedly pumped before the insulin can be inhaled. Making matters worse, Exubera doses differ from those for standard insulin, and converting doses can be complicated, the doctors say. Also, insurers have been reluctant to pay for Exubera, which costs about $5 a day, compared with $2 to $3 a day for injectable insulin. In addition, the needles now used for conventional insulin injections are smaller and less painful than they once were. “Out of 2,000 times or more I’ve tried to start patients on insulin, I’ve only been turned down twice,” said Dr. John Buse, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.



Marketing 101: Ensure your product is easy to use and understand as compared to the competition. I'm not sure why Pfizer thought that the use of the product would not be an issue for diabetics who currently self inject. Then there is the use of consumer generated media. One person has stared a campaign via the Internet to warn people that inhaled insulin can damage lungs. Pfizer’s clinical trials show that the drug causes lung function to drop in some patients. Again Marketing 101: patients view side effects and make trade offs for product conveniences. Unfortunately Exubera doesn't seem to have advantages over injected insulin.

So now Pfizer is taking their message directly to consumers. Not a good move in my opinion. Physicians don't have the time to work with patients to explain treatment options or how to use prescription drugs. For patients who are used to small, less painful needles the answer might be to just keep on "doing what works" instead of using a new product that requires them to change their lifestyle.
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Making DTC more effective, an idea...
Apr/09/2007 02:22 Current DTC Permalink
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What can we do to make DTC more effective? Well let's take a category where there is intense competition, cholesterol control. Lipitor of course is the market leader and is the first $10 billion product but lately others are trying to make some inroads against the market leader. Brands like Vytorin for example are using the POD that cholesterol comes from two sources the food you eat and your family history of high cholesterol. Here is what I believe could be a very effective campaign that would require pharma companies to become collaborators for the good of patients.


Click stream analysis of pharma product sites clearly show that people are comparing medications. They want to know how prescription drugs compare to each other in terms of effectiveness and side effects. Yet brand are not allowed to compare products unless they do head to head clinical studies. Now what if all the top brand in the high cholesterol market got together to take an important message to consumers who may have high cholesterol but are unaware of the dangers it could pose. They could sponsor a campaign to drive people to a common website where they could evaluate their risks but more importantly compare ALL the different medications. Oh my God you say ! Collaboration on a disease state website where consumers can easily compare medications? Now why would we do this?



Well for one thing if in fact the goal is to increase awareness of the dangers of high cholesterol than you need to grab the attention of the audience. Let them compare medications and make a decision with their health care professional that is in their best interest. Manufacturers could provide links to their individual product websites and even offer trial incentives all in one site. Imagine a customer focused site to provide answers to their questions and inform them of a potential silent killer....



Well here is my storyboard....



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Celebrex should have stayed off the air
Apr/07/2007 10:15 Current DTC Permalink
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So in order to make patients more comfortable with a prescription pain reliever Pfizer has decided to compare the dangers of Celebrex with OTC pain relievers. Notice to Pfizer: when the side effects use words like death and bleeding maybe its better not to use DTC advertising with consumers. You see consumers have very short attention spans and don't think logically they think emotionally. When they hear words like "death" and "bleeding" they are going to build a negative association of your product in their minds. This is marketing 101 under the chapter called "DUH" !





So telling me that the risks for Celebrex maybe the same as OTC products does little to make me feel better. In fact I may want to stop taking OTC products like Advil or Aleve, Consumers hear things selectively when they see ads on TV. Certain words tend to be more emotional than others (death is definitely one of them) and soon people are going to associate death with Celebrex. Now I am sure that the DTC people at Pfizer have a lot of research from focus groups that shows that the commercial is good but when are marketers going to learn that focus groups don't represent the general public. They are 4 or 6 people in an enclosed and regulated environment and they don't have the usual external distractions that we all get when commercials come on.


Can you imagine surfing the channels on TV only to hear:


These medicines also increase the chance of serious skin reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. With any of these medicines, patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers.




I'm a gambler so oh yeah...let me go ask my doctor for a medication that may cause intestinal bleeding and death ! The stupidity of this campaign is beyond imagination. Instead of explaining the risks of the medication (i.e. how many people in clinical studies reported these side effects) Pfizer has decided to compare the medication to OTC products which are a lot less expensive by the way.


I also love the cartoon blueprint it makes me feel like Pfizer has something to hide or is too cheap to use real people. I guess this campaign was supposed to make me feel more comfortable in taking Celebrex (I have a prescription for Celebrex for leg pain) but now I don't want to use it anymore. Instead I'll use topical heating pads or ointments because I don't want to risk any intestinal bleeding. Thanks Pfizer for reminding me of the risks, one less Rx to renew.
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Doo Wop and DTC = More bad DTC
Apr/07/2007 09:59 Current DTC Permalink
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How much worse can DTC get? Well there are the horrible ads for Rozerem featuring a beaver and Abe Lincoln and now there are ads featuring doo-wop for Astelin. Doo-wop? Yes guys wearing black sweaters with the letters of Astelin spelled out singing a doo-wop song. The only thing that I can think of is that the creative person on this account has a major drinking problem and is mired in the 50's. Again the consumer is left to decide "what the hell is this ad all about" and I am thinking that there is no lifeguard on duty in the pharma marketing talent pool.



It's estimated that consumers see anywhere from 500 to over a 1000 brand messages a day. To cut through the clutter advertisers have convinced brand managers that they have to be "cute" and brand managers have signed off on this absurd notation. Instead of keeping the message simple and informing consumers of brand differentiations or key selling points they have to hire a talking beaver and a doo-wop group. Oh my aching head !

I guess I am not surprised given the lack of talent in pharma marketing but at some point you have to scratch your head and ask "what the hell is going on here?". I can't imagine what it was like to present the ad concepts for Rozarem and Astelin to executive management. Are these senior manager so devoid of marketing skills that they buy into these really bad concepts? This is what happens when senior managers have no marketing background and as such have to rely on agency and brand DTC people to present (and explain) concepts.

The Astelin ads are another example of really bad DTC and another reason why good talent is hard to find.
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For those of you who haven't worked in pharma..
Apr/03/2007 03:02 Pharma Business Permalink
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I read a lot of BLOGS that have to do with pharma and DTC but in order to truly appreciate the problems of big pharma one has had to experience it first hand. the endless meetings, the micromanagement the throwback thinking and a culture that leaves dead weight in place while people who want to think outside the box move on to more challenging positions. Think this is wrong? Well let me tell you a story about my first years at Lilly....



When I first arrived at Eli lilly in Indianapolis I was given a booklet on leadership that was written by our CEO Sidney Taurel. I enjoyed reading the book and made the mistake of trying to embrace some of his principles including the need to "implement with speed". I know that speed is a competitive advantage and organizations have to review processes to streamline them so that they can in fact implement faster. What I found was resistance at every level of the organization and my manager even told me to "slow down" to allow people to catch up with me.


Then there was a forum that was help on DTC. While at this forum I was told by a Director that I had to learn more about DTC and I responded "DTC needs to learn more from consumer marketers" upon which there was a loud round of applause from the rest of the audience. When I worked on the Cialis launch team I observed first hand how data was manipulated to show the results that supported more money for television while leaving the Web behind. To this day the website has not changed since I left the company and they are still spending money on TV while the Web site suffers from neglect. By the way 85% of the visitors to our website the first year came from online ads and search engines not TV although I am sure that the two worked together to drive traffic.


Another accurate picture of working in pharma is the endless meetings. Death by meetings is a great way to characterize the atmosphere. Calendars are often booked for weeks at a time and God forbid you just stop bye someone's cube to talk over an idea? For vendors it's even worse with endless presentations and dollars used for trips to Indianapolis only to be told that we had decided to use someone else.


So could it get worse? Well yes....there are a great number of people who I know got promoted to Manager at Lilly that were promoted because of "who they know or how they act" rather than what they did for the company and the brand. This while very talented people continue to transition from careers to jobs and collect paychecks and go through just enough to survive. One author calls them the walking dead and there are a lot of them within pharma. A good leader can transform the WHOLE organization with a vision not just words but I am afraid that this doesn't happen much at big pharma. Companies like Amgen, which had and edge as a biotech company, are hiring more and more people from big pharma as they make the transition to execute by endless meetings and at a snails pace.


Think that this is not true? Ask anyone who works in pharma and chances are that you will hear the stories of long meetings and twisted data (400% ROI on a TV campaign for example). I still believe that out there there are some companies that believe they are in business to help their customers but it looks like that is getting harder to find. Maybe I'm an idealist or maybe I just believe that we can be successful by providing patients with the drugs they need to continue to lead productive lives.
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