Well it seems
that the NEJM's article on Avandia has done a lot
of damage to GSK. Doctors in the U.S. have
shunned GlaxoSmithKline
PLC's diabetes
drug Avandia since a study was published last
week linking the drug to greater heart-attack
risk, according to early prescription data.
Market-intelligence group Impact RX said
Avandia's share of the market for newly
prescribed oral antidiabetics fell to around zero
from around 10% in the two days after the article
was published in the New England Journal of
Medicine on May 21. The NEJM has single hand-idly
taken on big pharma in an attempt to chose sides
in the hostile environment against big pharma.
Read
More...
May/29/2007 04:56 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Every so often
someone becomes the voice of reason in a crazy
world. The latest example was Dr gottlieb's
letter in Tuesday's Wall Steet Journal that
questions the journals release of an article
questioning the data on Avandia. As he writes
"Unfortunately,
major medical journals that should be filling
this role often put more weight on pushing
political agendas. Their editorial prejudice has
left a troubling void for rigorous and unbiased
arbiters of medical evidence who can guide sound
medical practice decisions.
Wow
! But wait there is a lot more here..
Read
More...
Tags: Avandia
If pharma
companies are to continue to grow and compete in
today's environment changes have to happen,
especially within the organization. The days of
30 people brand teams has to come to an end.
People at every level of the brand team have to
be held accountable for programs they implemented
and speed and transparency has to become the norm
rather than the exception. Read
More...
Tags: Pharma organization
May/25/2007 09:45 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Some people
believe that marketing, when it comes to
pharmaceuticals, is crossing over to the dark
side. What happened to make marketing such an
important role in whether a drug is successful or
not, and has marketing to both HCP's and
consumers crossed the line ? In an era of
increased consumer power it isn't always the best
product that succeeds anymore, it may come down
to the best marketing. Read
More...
Tags: Marketing
May/24/2007 06:09 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Well one look at
today's Wall Street Journal section on
pharmaceuticals is enough to make a portfolio
manager downgrade all pharma stocks. Avandia
could cause heart attacks, Amgen gets a subpoena
from the New York, and a Novartis drug could
cause kidney failure. What does this all mean?
Well for pharmaceutical companies it could mean
that portfolio managers are going to direct more
investment dollars away from pharma and biotech
but there are also some serious implications for
DTC marketers. Read
More...
Tags: Marketing
May/22/2007 06:44 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
In a
way Shakespeare was right...shoot all the lawyers
! Let's face it, lawyers should be thanking the
pharma industry for all the business they
getting. The latest comes from a woman in Vermont
who is suing Wyeth because the FDA approved label
"didn't go far enough". She won a $6.8 million
judgement but now it maybe up to the Supreme
Court to determine if in fact there is any
liability here. Read
More...
Tags: FDA
May/21/2007 06:38 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Marketers
spend way too much time conducting research with
"potential patients" rather than current patients
and that's a shame as current patients can
provide a wealth of information on what made them
finally take action and ask for your brand.
Rather than learn from patients who have not made
the decision to seek treatment marketers should
listen to patients who made the move and ask
"what were the keys to seeking
treatments...?". Read
More...
Tags: Marketing, Patients
May/18/2007 06:48 Filed in:
Media
(Internet)
Well
it's started...WPP purchased Real Media for $650
million...Microsoft acquired Avenue A/Razorfish
and that is just the start of what traditional
agencies are coming to realize "The Internet is
where most advertisers want to be". Do you hear
that pharma marketers? Still want to waste money
on TV with little ROI while ignoring the web? The
problem of course is that unless you have real
eMarketing people on board this trend is going to
pass you by like a cool breeze on a hot summer
night. Read
More...
Tags: Internet, Media, TV
May/17/2007 08:35 Filed in:
Media
(Internet)
The headlines
scream.. "Most consumers use Internet to compare
drug benefits, so marketers need to be aware of
what other sites are saying". Can I say it..you
know I really want to say it...DUH
! How ignorant
does Prevention magazines Rodale Press think
marketers are? Ooopss..I forgot we're talking
about DTC marketers..never-mind.
Read
More...
Tags: Marketing, media
May/15/2007 06:47 Filed in:
The agency
side
If you read the
trade magazines you probably have seen more and
more stories about agencies walking away from
companies and potential lucrative business. There
is a transformation taking place in the media
marketplace and agencies are aware the the
traditional "wine and dine them" relationship is
joining the dinosaurs. The future is about being
a strategic partner with the brand and being
evaluated on quantitative metrics that determine
their value in the marketing-brand
relationship. Read
More...
Tags: Working with vendors
May/14/2007 02:32 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
The environment
is which pharmaceutical companies market their
products is changing quite rapidly. Those
companies that adopt to the new environment will
survive those that do not will merge or be bought
out with the loss of a lot of jobs. Here are my
predictions for the future of the pharmaceutical
business. Read
More...
Tags: Organization
May/14/2007 10:07 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
I am sure there
will be some executives at Amgen who will be
reading the Long Tail after possibly losing
possibly $2 billion in sales from it's top
selling product Aranesp. What surprises me is
that most pharmaceutical companies continue to
rely on blockbusters to drive their profits at a
time when it is getting harder and harder to
develop and launch blockbuster products.
Read
More...
Tags: Amgen
May/12/2007 10:38 Filed in:
Media
(Internet)
It looks like a
physicians portal has finally got it right and
figured out that the power of the Web to bring
people together and collarborate can lead to
success. Sermo.com now has over 10,000 physicians
registered and judging from recent posts to the
site it looks like the their slogan is right "Why
consult with one collegue when you can consult
with thousands?". Read
More...
Tags: Internet, Physicians, HCP
Marketing
May/11/2007 05:55 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
The fine levied
against Purdue pharmaceuticals for aggressively
marketing Oxicontin and then lying about its
potential for addiction is not high enough to
send a message to the drug industry that this
type of behavior will not be tolerated. The FDA
should have put these executives in jail and
fined the company $2 billion as this would have
told drug industry exec's that if you lie and put
patients health at risk your going to be held
accountable. Read
More...
Tags: FTC, Fines
May/11/2007 05:34 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
If DTC marketers
don't feel that the recent rash of negative
headlines (Oxy Cotin maker lied about addiction,
J&J and Amgen possibly promoting higher
dosing of medications) is going to effect their
campaigns then they are living in a fantasy
world. These stories are going to continue to
chip away at the credibility of pharmaceutical
companies to deliver relevant information to
patients and cause more consumers to research all
treatment options. Read
More...
Tags: DTC Marketing
May/10/2007 06:11 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
I don't get it?
How many ways can the pharmaceutical industry
continue to screw up and in the process put
patients health at risk in pursuit of profits?
The latest example comes from a whistle blower
lawsuit from a couple of ex J&J salespeople
who have provided the Wall Street
Journal with a wealth of
information on the promotional practices of
Procrit. If even there is a slight truth to some
of the allegations then the FDA should hit
J&J where it hurts..their pocketbook.
Read
More...
Tags: Enforcement
May/09/2007 06:19 Filed in:
HCP
Marketing
The
tale of anemia drug use in the US is taking more
turns and twists than "curve ahead" road in San
Francisco. According to an article in this
mornings New York Times, doctors are gaining a
financial benefit for prescribing the drug and
the more they prescribe the more they make. The
drug companies simply say "what we are doing is
legal" but frankly that is not enough and it's
time for the FDA to come down hard on Amgen and
J&J if they find that they supported this
practice Read
More...
Tags: Enforcement, Off-Label use
May/06/2007 07:23 Filed in:
Current
DTC
Starbucks
is one of the best known brands i the world yet
this marketer spends less than 2% of its annual
budget on advertising. They probably realize that
spending $100 million, primarily on TV, to reach
certain awareness levels is old school marketing
that provides little ROI for the brand. There are
a lot of innovative ways to reach your target
audience and raise awareness of the brand but
most pharma marketers would rather continue to
spend millions of TV or Golf because they are
stuck in the past where marketers told consumers
what to buy. Read
More...
Tags: DTC Dollars
May/05/2007 08:29 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
I had a chance
this week to go back into the New York Times
archives and research the complete stories on
Lilly's Zyprexa. Since I worked at Lilly and was
aware of the stringent regulatory environment I
was trying to understand how this could happen,
but after listening to a number of people within
the industry the question became "I am surprised
this doesn't happen a lot more". It's only a
matter of time before another product gets called
under the microscope only to find that mistakes
were made along the way....mistakes that could
endanger patients health.
Read
More...
Tags: Pharma ethics
May/04/2007 06:41 Filed in:
Current
DTC
Manhattan
Research loves to issue data in press releases.
The problem is that unless you know what the data
says it's just statistics. Data should tell DTC
marketers a story and help them gain insights
into WHY consumers act the way they do....In the
not-too-distant past, prime time television was
filled with pharmaceutical advertisements urging
prospective patients to call a toll-free number
for more information. Thanks to the Internet and
other emerging technologies, today's
pharmaceutical marketers have an arsenal of new
strategies at their disposal, making this call to
action seems as antiquated as VCRs and dial-up
modems. One of the most popular trends in
pharmaceutical marketing over the past few years
is the shift toward unbranded advertisements
focused on building awareness for a certain
condition, and, in many cases, encouraging
consumers to visit a website for more information
about that condition. Read
More...
Tags: Internet, Media, TV
May/01/2007 09:40 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
It was
disturbing to learn this week, according to John
Mack's survey, that BLOGS critical of the
pharmaceutical industry are viewed more credible
than BLOGS supportive of the industry. There's a
lot wrong with the pharmaceutical industry from
DTC marketing to CEO's who are so anxious to
please Wall Street that the lose site of what we
should be all about but unless you have worked in
the pharma industry there is no way that you can
sit on the fence and point fingers at people
inside the house. Read
More...
Tags: Pharma ethics
