Envisioning 2.0

In recent weeks, John Mack, author of the Pharma Marketing Blog, has been extensively covering Takeda’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising campaign for its sleep aid Rozerem. Mack and others are confused by the company’s commercials, which feature a beaver and Abe Lincoln. The are trying to figure out what those images have to do with the drug’s clinical profile.

Richard Meyer, who writes the DTC Marketing Blog also scoffed at the Rozerem campaign, saying: “In a world where there are lots of competitors and one (Ambien) has a clear lead you need more than differentiation. Using the likeness of Abe Lincoln and a Beaver is not the way to cut through the clutter. All brand decisions should emanate from a trueline. A trueline is the one statement you can make about your brand that can’t be reduced, refuted or dismissed. It needs to be upfront in TV ads because after the first three seconds you lost your customers attention.”

What This Has To Do With Pfizer’s Experimental HDL Raising Drug

Mack and Meyer’s posts remind us that ultimately a drug lives and dies on its functional attributes. At the end of the day, people want to know:

- How well a drug works

- What are its side effects

- How will it help me live better – in the short and long term

Over the past few years, Pfizer has been spending a lot of money – about $800 million – on its new cholesterol fighter torcetrapib. One of the key benefits of the drug is that it may significantly increase HDL or good cholesterol and clear dangerous blockages from people’s arteries. Pfizer is hoping that the drug will become its next blockbuster and power its earnings after Lipitor goes generic.

Yesterday torcetrapib took a big hit. Pfizer revealed the preliminary results of a major clinical trial it is running indicating that the drug increases systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) an average of three to four millimeters of mercury. That’s a big deal because clinical trials indicate that even modest increases in blood pressure increase a person’s risk for a heart attack or stroke.

Clearly, Pfizer faces a conundrum. How can it convince physicians to prescribe a cardiovascular medicine that may increase the risk of heart disease? Pfizer’s chief medical officer Joseph Feczko is still bullish about the drug. He told the Wall Street Journal that Pfizer thinks torcetrapib will have a positive “net impact” for patients because it raises HDL cholesterol and un-blocks arteries.
Now, let’s think for a second about potential marketing strategies for torcetrapib. Does it make better sense for Pfizer to:

A) Develop an advertising campaign that features dancing bears, monkeys and other animals touting the product

B) Produce a nuanced, clear and consistent communications campaign that highlights torcetrapib’s benefits and answers questions about its effect on blood pressure

I would choose B every time. Producing a marketing initiative like this would ensure that people get answers to the questions they care about (Hmm, this sounds like a job for PR). Cute and zany is okay, but in healthcare it can be distracting and ultimately detrimental to a brand. Call me conservative and uncreative, but sometimes taking the straight and narrow path is best.

Pfizer faces a difficult challenge. Not only does it have to convince doctors to prescribe its drug, but it must fend off companies like Kos Pharmaceuticals, which is developing its own cholesterol medications. The firm is researching a lipid-modifying product that will increase HDL, modify triglycerides and lower LDL cholesterol. Will physicians choose Kos’ medication, over Pfizer’s because of the fear that torcetrapib will increase patients’ blood pressure?

However, all of this speculation will be moot if the FDA does not approve torcetrapib. If Pfizer is able to convince the advisory board and the agency of the drug’s benefits, it will have a solid argument for why physicians and patients should use the product. Only time will tell what the ultimate outcome will be.

This entry was posted on November 2, 2006 at 11:30 am and is filed under Marketing Communications, The Pharmaceutical Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.