When DTC doesn't work
Byetta was launched with a lot of hype and PR press. The NY Times ran an article touting Byetta's weight loss side effect and there was a lot of buzz in the diabetic community. But soon some negative stories started to surface about patients getting nauseous after taking doses followed by the stories about cases of pancreatitis. Rather than embrace transparency and address these issues Lilly chose largely to ignore them but patients were talking about them as the "buzz" chart below indicates.
Of course the environmental factors in diabetes treatments did not help Byetta when it actually should have led to more sales. First there was Avandia cardio side effects and then Pfizer decided to pull the plug on its inhaled insulin. During the period when the story about a possible link between Byetta and pancreatitis was all over the Web, including lawyers purchasing key words for possible litigation, Byetta DTC continued to air largely ignoring the buzz online. Meanwhile the Website talks about the "Byetta buzz" which of course is a promotional message that again disregards the real buzz.
The buzz was there but there were a lot of concerns
about pancreatitis and nausea
The DTC team chose to go with TV ads rather than targeting online and the ads were horrible. Will Byetta sales start to grow again? That's hard to say but the DTC team had better develop some ads that address the emotional barriers to treatment and give patients a reason that they need to give themselves injections when they hate injections. The weight loss side effect is indeed positive but not at the risk of getting sick to your stomach. $40 million in DTC down the drain in an ineffective campaign that could and should have had more online presence could have provided a hell of a lot better ROI than TV.