Vytoringate fallout is going to be extensive
Jan/23/2008 05:29 Filed in: Pharma
Business
To demonstrate how out of touch pharma marketers are with todays marketing environment one only has to look at the full page ads that Merck and SP have been running in newspapers like the NY Times. Earth to Merck and SP: you're credibility is in the toilet and nobody is going to believe anything you say including physicians who are probably switching people to generic statins by the bunch.
DTC marketing needed a radical change and since marketers were unwilling to accept the realities of new marketing it is being forced upon them by continued missteps of people who are ignorant and don't get it. Vytorin sales are going to take a nose dive and frankly they should and there is no way in hell that I would want to be a salesperson from Merck or SP calling on a physician in the coming months as the PR nightmare firestorm escalates by the fanning of the flames from the media. This is a PR nightmare for all pharma marketers and the DTC dollars that they are spending now are less effective because consumers don't trust your message anymore.
No wonder so many pharma CEO's are leaving with their golden parachutes. Why stay in this type of environment? After all it's not like they understand crisis management or today's marketing environment. The underlying reason for these continued problems is simple: pharma has been trying too much to please those on Wall Street and has made some really bad decisions in pursuit of ever higher stock prices and new blockbusters. They lost track of their real customers: physicians and patients, and they are now paying the price for their mistakes.
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