Lilly is discussing
a settlement with federal prosecutors into the
marketing of Zyprexa and the settlement could reach
$1 billion. The question we have to ask now is "what
is Lilly, and the industry, going to do to prevent
this from happening again"? Is the pharma industry
just going to look at this as a "risk of doing
business" and possible litigation as an
expense? Read
More...
Jan/30/2008 05:38 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Can pharma companies
ever regain credibility with consumers and physicians
? The answer is yes, but it is going to require a
change in the organization from the top down and a
level of transparency that is going to have legal
teams reaching for aspirin. Read
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Jan/29/2008 05:58 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
More fallout from
the changing environment? It seems that
eMarketer is reporting that
most marketing budgets are going to stay the same
or be cut in the coming years. Since most senior
managers at pharma view marketing as a necessary
evil and an "expense" DTC marketers maybe looking
at shrinking budgets at a time when pharma
revenues maybe declining as well.
Read
More...
Jan/26/2008 04:54 Filed in:
HCP
Marketing
According to a
Professor at Georgetown University a doctor who
spends just one minute with a sales rep typically
ends up prescribing 16% more of that rep's product
than he or she was prescribing before. And a
four-minute encounter is likely to prompt a 52% jump
in prescriptions. An associate professor of
physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University
has spent the past six months lecturing med students
at Georgetown and neighboring schools on how to
resist sales reps' overtures, such as doling out free
drug samples to physicians and bringing lunches for
office staff. Another reason why the current business
model may not work for pharma. Read
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Jan/25/2008 05:59 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
What a week.. If
pharma continues to have problems like these the
CEO's are going to be turning to the emergency
bottles of Jack Daniel's located in their bottom desk
draw. To me however the key question is whether
pharma can learn from their mistakes and start to
acknowledge that in fact the marketing environment
has changed and that the "old ways" of doing business
maybe coming to an end rather quickly.
Read
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With all that is
troubling this country right now, the economy, the
war, it's quite disturbing to read that
Representative Dingel has asked the FDA for all the
paperwork in their approval of the Lipitor ad with Dr
Jarvik. But then this is politics and we need only
remember that Pfizer decided to close a facility in
Michigan thus drawing the ire of Rep Dingell who now
wants to get even. Read
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Jan/23/2008 05:29 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Total U.S.
prescriptions written for Vytorin in the week ended
Jan. 18 fell about 9.5% to 359,659 from 397,533 in
the week ended Jan. 11. Unfortunately that may not be
the worst of the fallout. It seems now that all the
Presidential candidates are talking about
prescription drugs and the FDA. If you think the
environment was tough before "you haven't see
anything yet"! Read
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Jan/21/2008 05:33 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
If
this keeps up used car salespeople are going to have
more credibility then pharma marketers. From
Advertising Age comes a story about how the Vytorin
campaign is a PR nightmare and fanning the flames of
mistrust. Maybe I was wrong pharma has not hit rock
bottom but they sure are in a deep canyon.
Read
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Jan/21/2008 06:02 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Trade publications
in the DTC area tend to be pretty bad but the recent
announcement by Medical Marketing and Media that AT
won agency of the year almost caused me to lose my
breakfast. This is the agency that gave us the
horrible Abe and the Beaver campaign and has resulted
in a brand, Rozerem, which has quietly become the
laughing stock of the industry. I wonder what "back
scenes", "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"
maneuvering was done to secure this award?
Read
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Jan/19/2008 02:19 Filed in:
Current DTC
My
copy of Business Week
arrived in the
mail this morning with a cover story devoted to
Lipitor and the statin market. After reading the
story and doing some research on the Web I have
decided to stop taking Lipitor and guess what my
physician agrees with me. Read
More...
Jan/19/2008 07:11 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
The pharmaceutical
and auto industry have a lot in common: they both are
going through hard times and unless they change the
way they do business there will a lot more tough
times ahead. The pursuit of the "blockbuster" has led
to some really bad decisions but the biggest missteps
maybe ignoring the changes in the marketing
environment Read
More...
Jan/18/2008 06:19 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Prozac is probably
the best known antidepressant in the world and did a
lot to move depression from an overlooked disease to
a mainstream disease. However, The makers of
antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published
the results of about a third of the drug trials that
they conducted to win government approval, misleading
doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true
effectiveness, a new analysis has found. Yeah, I
trust the pharma companies with data....NOT !
Read
More...
Jan/18/2008 06:07 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
The attorney General
of New Jersey is looking into charges made by a
former Amgen sales representative who claim that they
were directed to get patient records from physicians
and call patients directly to recommend Enbrel. While
one would roll their eyes in disbelief at these
charges one of the salespeople who was fired has
turned over a copy of a voice mail from her
supervisor as well as a memo that could be a hell of
a lot more than a smoking gun. Read
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Jan/17/2008 05:12 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
The promotion of
Vytorin is going to be investigated by Congress,
antidepressants may not work and Novartis earnings
take a 45% hit. Iceberg dead ahead ! These are really
tough times for pharma and it seems that they are
getting hit from all sides. No new blockbusters on
the way and in the next few years a lot of current
blockbusters will be coming off of patent. It's going
to make or break a lot of CEO's and only those with
real leadership potential can guide this ship in an
ocean full of deadly obstacles. Read
More...
Jan/16/2008 06:21 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
An
editorial in today's
Times questions the
promotional money spent on Vytorin and Zetia which
led to more than $5 billion in sales globally.
From what this author has read sales of both
products will take a substantial hit but even
though there are questions about the drugs
effectiveness there are more serious issues here
about the release of clinical trial data.
Read
More...
Jan/15/2008 05:16 Filed in:
Current DTC
Cialis is going to
be available for daily use in 5mg and men will have
to pay dearly for more sex. Most insurers are not
going to cover the $350+ expense for daily use now
Lilly has decided that they will air ads encouraging
couples to have more sex or at least be more
spontatious. There could be an advantage to taking
Cialis everyday in that you CAN be ready when the
moment is right. In this time pressed world planning
for intimacy does not always work even when you plan
a romantic night something can always get in the
way. Read
More...
Jan/14/2008 03:54 Filed in:
In The News
“This is as bad a
result for the drug as anybody could have feared,”
said Dr. Nissen chairman of cardiology at the
Cleveland Clinic. Millions of patients may be taking
a drug that has no benefits for them, raising their
risk of heart attacks and exposing them to potential
side effects, he said. Can you see the letter going
out to physicians from insurers telling them they
should not prescribe Zetia and that they will nor
reimburse for prescriptions? Read
More...
Jan/14/2008 05:34 Filed in:
Pharma
Business In The News
Doctors, including
the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined
fibromyalgia has since changed his mind saying that
the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the
other drugs will be taken by millions of people who
do not need them. In fact some same that this is not
a disease at all but rather a condition that is
brought on by anxiety, stress and pain. In the
meantime Pfizer is banking the $1.8 billion in sales
of Lyrica and has stared an aggressive DTC campaign
to increase penetration in the estimated 10 million
people who may have fibromyalgia. Read
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Jan/13/2008 05:21 Filed in:
In The News
The news last week
that Mr Schultz fired his Chief Executive and was
going to take over the head job at Starbucks once
again has a lot of lessons for marketers. Starbucks,
which was once a brand with a lot of equity, is now
facing a lot of competition and, as the New York
Times described, is not a cool brand anymore. Pharma
marketers had better read the lessons here because it
applies to DTC marketing as well as consumer packaged
goods. Read
More...
Jan/12/2008 07:22 Filed in:
In The News
What happens when a
CEO of a pharma company goes on a rant, in a national
newspaper, about how the media does not understand
drug trial data and thus is responsible for his
company losing billions of dollars in market
capitalization? Could it be that maybe he is politely
asked to take a long long vacation and step down from
his post because he has lost touch with the realities
of today's business environment? That, in this
writers opinion, is a distinct possibility and
considering that Lilly is going to continue
"downsizing" could not have come at a worse time for
employees. Read
More...
Jan/11/2008 01:27 Filed in:
In The News
Think it's not going
to be a year of belt tightening for pharma? Think
again, IMS is staring to lay off people and Ogilvy
One Worldwide is also shrinking it's staff. The truth
is that there are less dollars to go around and the
support agencies are going to feel the pain. In order
to hold onto the business they are going to have to
demonstrate their value up and down the management
chain. Read
More...
Jan/09/2008 04:54 Filed in:
In The News
Imagine if you will
getting a call from a pharmaceutical sales person
because you are taking a prescription medication and
they want to recommend that you "look at" another
medication. Think that it can't happen? Well two
Amgen salespeople who were fired are saying that
Amgen told them to get medical records of patients
and call them directly to see if they would be
interested in Enbrel. Is this the Twilight Zone or
are people really that stupid? Read
More...
Jan/09/2008 05:35 Filed in:
HCP
Marketing
A
recent article on eye for pharma
had
an interview with a spokesperson from Bayer who
feels that the reason eDetailing is not being
adapted by physicians in big numbers is because of
"there is a lack of integration with other product
initiatives and therefore a lack of easy access to
information for the physicians". This is simply
untrue. The reason that eDetailing is in a funk is
because pharma companies have not given any
thought to the content and instead want to use
eDetailing as a platform to "sell".
Read
More...
Jan/07/2008 04:17 Filed in:
Regulatory
Environment
How is that we can't
catch Bin Laden but Congress wants to get Pfizer for
using Dr Robert Jarvik as a celebrity spokesperson
for Lipitor? It seems that Mr Wrangel feels that
since Dr Jarvik is not a licensed physician that
people might get the wrong message and think that he
is giving "medical advice". This is more proof that
Congress has way too much time on their hands.
Read
More...
Jan/07/2008 05:50 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Well the first full
workweek after the holidays and if the rumor mill is
even half true there are some changes in store for
both executives and branded DTC. For example, an
industry executive who last year made comments about
an online forum will be reassigned or leave the
company and the possible data concerning a
cholesterol drug will effect new Rx's.
Read
More...
Jan/05/2008 08:02 Filed in:
Internet
& DTC Marketing
Recent traffic
spikes in online video, especially news, has a lot a
lot of marketers, and Webmasters, scrambling to add
more content. There is a major opportunity here for
DTC marketers to align their brands with this trend
but in order to make it effective you have to "keep
it real" Read
More...
Tags: Video, Websites
Jan/02/2008 05:29 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
If
you're a DTC marketer or work for an agency get ready
to see DTC budgets drastically reduced in 2008. The
business model for pharma is changing and the new
business model will eventually move to "lean and
mean" which means do more with less. If you're agency
works with a DTC team you are probably going to have
to justify every dollar again and again making it
painful to try and implement programs.
Read
More...
