Feb/27/2008 06:03 Filed in:
Current DTC
The news that Pfizer
pulled the Lipitor ads was not surprising to anyone
who was watching from the sidelines. Politicians, in
their infinite wisdom, decided that we were being
duped by Dr Jarvik because he wasn't licensed to
practice medicine in this country and used a double
for the rowing scene in the commercials. How many
people actually were swayed by Dr Jarvik is up to
debate but rumor has it that Congress is next going
to ensure that Sally Field is still a card carrying
member of the actors guild. Read
More...
Feb/27/2008 05:42 Filed in:
Internet
& DTC Marketing
A
new report from eMarketer should add fuel to the fire
about the influence of the Internet on health care
choices. It seems that people turn to the Web as
their primary information choice when deciding on
health care choices (DUH). Of course this will mean
little to DTC marketers who continue to ignore the
Web and focus more on push (old marketing) then
relevant dialogue with patients and customers.
Read
More...
Feb/26/2008 06:00 Filed in:
Regulatory
Environment
The Supreme Court is
hearing cases to determine if FDA approval of a drug
exempts drug companies from being sued by patients.
Of course companies that withhold data can still get
sued but otherwise patients would have no recourse
and a lot of trial lawyers would be out of work if
the Court sides with the FDA and drug industry.
Read
More...
Feb/25/2008 05:02 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
A
flood of drug safety warnings from the Food and Drug
Administration may have physicians and patients
suffocating from information saturation. Experts say
there are too many red flags for them to pay
attention so what's happening is that many people
have stopped taking their medications without
consulting their physician. The drug companies are to
blame along with the FDA that seems more intent in
pulling ads because a spokesperson is not a licensed
physician rather that come up with a system to
distribute credible information to patients.
Read
More...
Feb/23/2008 08:09 Filed in:
Regulatory
Environment
A
recent eMail from an industry trade magazine that is
all but in pharma's back pocket suggested that DTC
advertising may disappear with the changing political
landscape. The chances of that happening however are
about as much as DTC marketers actually understanding
the changing environment in which they market. There
is just too much at stake here and too much money
that changes hands thus lobbyists will ensure that
DTC advertising remains as part of the nightly news.
Read
More...
Feb/22/2008 06:20 Filed in:
Media
(TV)
Well the list of the
most recalled pharma TV ads is out and some DTC
marketers and agency people will be running to
management with a "look what we did" attitude. Only
the smart and seasoned executives however will ask
the tough questions of marketers like "what did it do
to share" and "now that we have a high awareness how
do we translate that into new Rx's"? Unfortunately
most marketers don't know how to take that awareness
and translate into new Rx's they feel that someone
will see the ad and go running to their doctor to ask
for an Rx. Notice to DTC marketers: that model
doesn't work anymore Read
More...
Feb/21/2008 03:29 Filed in:
Web 2.0 ?
Although it’s still
being defined, the recent phenomenon known as Health
2.0 is perhaps best described as "patient-empowered
health care." In the 21st century, people with
various health conditions can find valuable
resources, including social networks, online to help
them cope and make better informed decisions about
their care. The problem is that DTC marketers aren't
listening and continue to push non-credible
information to consumers. Read
More...
Feb/21/2008 03:24 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
Whether traditional
TV advertising has truly lost its power, marketers
and advertisers are already eager to find
alternatives. The Association of National Advertisers
and Forrester Research's fourth biennial TV and
Technology survey shows a dramatic loss of confidence
in the medium as the industry gears up to explore new
ad formats and forms of video commercials. Of course
when it comes to DTC marketers they want more money
for more TV in an effort to throw more garbage
against the fan. Read
More...
Feb/21/2008 03:18 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
Another two trade
magazines are quick to remind us why DTC advertising
and marketing are in trouble. Pharma Executive names
Chantix as brand of the year (yes the same brand that
has been in the media with potentially really bad
side effects) and then DTC Perspectives gives DTC
people a pat ,via the DTC awards, on the back so they
can check off a box and get promoted.
Read
More...
Feb/20/2008 05:52 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Merck EVP Ken
Frazier in a “media-event”, told investors early this
month that prescriptions for Zetia and Vytorin had
stabilized and begun to grow again. Maybe he should
look at the data first? Vytorin prescriptions for the
week ended February 15 were off 7% to 327,698
compared with the previous week, according to data
provided by Verispan. And the prescriptions were down
nearly 18% from the week preceding the release of the
study results on January 14. Zetia prescriptions
declined 8% to 237,797 last week compared with the
week before, and were off 19% from pre-Enhance
levels Read
More...
Feb/19/2008 05:37 Filed in:
Current DTC
What do you do when
the Food and Drug Administration says it is
"increasingly likely" that Pfizer Inc.'s
smoking-cessation drug Chantix may be tied to serious
psychiatric symptoms ? You of course decide to pull
the branded ads and go with unbranded advertising.
That is exactly what Pfizer has done with its "my
time to quit" campaign. Very clever but a stupid move
by Pfizer marketers who think that the public is too
stupid to get the connection. Read
More...
Feb/18/2008 05:53 Filed in:
Media
(TV)
The one thing you
never want to see is Mike Wallace knocking on your
door with a 60 Minutes camera crew and the last thing
the FDA and pharma need is a story about how keeping
a drug on the market may have cost thousands of
lives. On 60
Minutes last night a
researcher estimates that 22,000 patients could
have been saved if the FDA removed the heart
surgery drug Trasylol two years ago, when his
study revealed widespread death associated with
it. Read
More...
Feb/16/2008 08:30 Filed in:
HCP
Marketing
You would think
that with all that is happening with pharma right now
that the FDA would want to tighten regulation on
marketing to HCP's. Well, new guidelines proposed by
the FDA would allow pharma companies to distribute
certain journal articles on off label uses for
prescription medications. If this isn't a step
towards abuse by pharma salespeople I don't know what
is. Read
More...
Feb/14/2008 06:00 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
There are many
lessons to be learned from Vytoringate but perhaps
the biggest lesson is that DTC marketers had better
pay attention to continuing clinical trials of their
products in order to support promotional claims. This
of course means that marketing is going to have a
forge a closer relationship with medical and
regulatory people which is like trying to mix oil and
water.
Read
More...
Feb/13/2008 05:28 Filed in:
In The News
"Nobody knows how
these drugs are going to effect you long term, we're
all just guinea pigs" said Sirius radio
personality Howard Stern recently on his
morning radio show which is heard by an estimated
3 million people. Is he expressing what others are
starting to think about long term use of
prescription drugs? Yesterday the vice chairman of
medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital said
that side effects of Lipitor" make some women
women stupid.” Is this from long term use of
statins or is it just normal part of aging? The
pharma industry and the FDA had better start using
science to benefit people rather than support
promotional claims to cut through the
garbage. Read
More...
Feb/11/2008 04:38 Filed in:
In The News
Forget the housing
crisis, the war in Iraq or the record profits of oil
companies, Congress wants to know who posted details
about the "enhance" study on Cafe Pharma as they dig
deeper into Vytoringate. Read
More...
Feb/10/2008 08:48 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
As
the recent issue of Med Ad News reported, pharma
companies are going to be cutting budgets this year
in all areas. While budget control is a necessity in
todays environment it can also lead to really bad
decisions. In talking with several interactive agency
people it seems that the first to see these cuts are
the Web. More proof that most pharma marketers are
clueless and will do anything to hold onto their
dollars so they can continue to waste money on
TV. Read
More...
Feb/07/2008 05:46 Filed in:
Healthcare in
America
Watch out here comes
Wal-Mart with a couple of hundred of walk in clinics
that look exactly like physician offices. The first
of the new Clinic at Wal-Mart walk-in centers, as
they will be called, is to open in Little Rock, Ark.,
in April and be run by nurse practitioners employed
by the St. Vincent Health System, a three-hospital
group in central Arkansas. More competition for
physicians and another opportunity for pharma to
extend its reach? Read
More...
Feb/06/2008 06:15 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
We
know your out there and we'll do everything we can to
find you ! Pharma continues to search for the next
blockbuster (sales over $1 billion) but as this
author has posted many times blockbusters may be a
term that is used in the past tense now.
Read
More...
Feb/05/2008 06:00 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
Bush has sent his
budget to Congress and the biggest winner, in
addition to the Pentagon, is the FDA who can now
start to add staff if the budget is approved. The
losers in the new budget however are social programs
including Medicare and Medicaid. This has far
reaching implications that will surely effect all
pharmaceutical companies where it hurts.
Read
More...
Feb/04/2008 05:57 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
It's no secret that
talented marketers are shying away from big pharma
for a number of reasons but it's mostly because DTC
marketers are tired of presenting and representing
decks to people to don't understand marketing in
hopes of getting some dollars to implement programs.
This author has learned that a major pharma company
is considering outsourcing all of its marketing and
branding to external agencies. With the talent drain
and rotating chairs it makes sense to leave marketing
and branding up to people who get it rather than
people who have been absorbed into the
collective. Read
More...
Feb/03/2008 06:29 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
According to this
weeks Business Week magazine in a paper just
published in the Jan. 19 issue of the British Medical
Journal (BMJ), a group of researchers concluded after
combing through several drug-company-sponsored
studies that the benefits of osteoporosis meds for
prevention were overstated. It's a classic case of
disease-mongering, according to the researchers: "A
risk factor has been transformed into a medical
disease in order to sell tests and drugs to
relatively healthy women." Oh-Oh here we go again
! Read
More...
Feb/02/2008 08:17 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
The Food and Drug
Administration said it is "increasingly likely" that
Pfizer Inc.'s smoking-cessation drug Chantix may be
tied to serious psychiatric symptoms. The FDA's
comment is part of a public health advisory issued
Friday. Will it never end? First there are reports
that antidepressants may not work and now a
medication to stop smoking may lead to serious
psychiatric problems? Maybe the legal profession
should start sending thank you letters to pharma
CEO's for all the work. Read
More...
