J&J Embraces "Special K" for Depression - Why Not Medical Marijuana?

Current antidepressants take weeks or months to have an effect, and then only in 30% of patients, notes Matthew Herper, Forbes, in a recent post (see here).

Herper reports that J&J is "reinventing" ketamine as a product for the rapid treatment of depression just like your kids have been using it for years as a party drug under the name "Special K".

It is suggested that J&J's embrace of ketamine as a product is courageous and that not many other corporate executives would be afraid of trying to turn ketamine as a product.

If it is courageous to consider party drugs to treat depression, it would be even more courageous to consider medical marijuana for this purpose.

I have written about the medical benefits of marijuama before (see, for example, "Big Idea for 2013: Legalization of Marijuana. Will It Hurt Pharma?") and believe it would be much more effective and quicker acting than ketamine with fewer side effects.

The chart below shows how I envision marijuana compares with ketamine and placebo (adapted from one of the slides in a presentation that J&J made to investors):

Of course, you'd never see pharma present the last thing pharma companies want to see is the spread of legal marijuana, which would jeopardize the lucrative products like "reinvented" -- ie, renewed patent protection -- ketamine. As Lee Jackson, author of a Daily Finance article cited in the blog post mentioned above, says, "One thing [big pharma] wants is for marijuana to remain illegal."

Tablet Detailing Evolution According to Roche Italy

I'm preparing for my presentation at the Roche Digital Academy in Milan on June 19, 2013 (see "Pharmaguy to Present at the Roche Digital Academy"). The Roche "Team Italy" (see below) sent me a nice infographic that provides some details about the current and future digital efforts of Roche Italy -- including some data regarding digital marketing spend by various brands.

I want focus on the section about "Tablet Detailing," which is shown in the following graphic:

It seems that Roche Italy is well on the way to fully integrating the iPad into its sales process, overcoming the dreaded "No iPad For You" attitude of some pharma "IT Nazis" that I wrote about in the past (read "Lazy IT 'Nazis' Thwart iPad Use by Sales Reps").

Should Pharma Do Tumblr?

Peter Houston (@Flipping_Pages) asked "Could Pharma Do Tumblr?" in a guest post to PharmExecBlog (here).

"I’m not suggesting that anyone switch their social media budget to Tumblr today on the strength of Yahoo’s involvement," said Houston. "But it’s worth keeping an eye on what Yahoo does and how the Tumblr audience reponds. If they get the content marketing part of the play right and the user base keeps active, Tumblr might just make it into your social media marketing plan."

My question replaces "could" with "should," which is probably what Houston meant to say -- it just got lost in translation from UK English to US English :-)

Of course, pharma "could" do Tumblr, but as Houston himself points out, there are many reasons why it "shouldn't."

First, the Tumblr demographics are not right for pharma. Tumblr, says Houston, is used "mainly by a 13 to 25 age group attracted by its 'social looseness'."

Second, "social looseness" is not an appropriate format for pharma, which cannot even abide comments on its Facebook and YouTube offerings.

Of course, Yahoo!, which now owns Tumblr, may change that and make Tumblr more "stodgy" and more palatable for pharma marketers even though its CEO said "Don't worry we won't screw it up." Yeah, sure. Us (former) New Yorkers have a saying: "If you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya."

Houston says there are "a lot of potential patients" on Tumblr. Sure, when Tumblr teenagers grow up in 20 years most WILL be patients and of pharma marketing age.

Houston suggested taking a look at the #diabeticproblems tag on Tumblr to find some "patients." I was too lazy to type all that into the Tumblr search engine and just went for #diabetes. The first hit I found intrigued me because it was an edgy series of cartoons by by Colin Upton (colinupton@telus.net), an older Canadian diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He has a series of R Crumb type comics focused on his daily life since diagnosis entitled "Diabetes Funnies." Take a look at issue #8 here, the first pane of which is reproduced below:

Colin is obviously an older guy and a good "target" for type 2 drug marketers. I can't see Novo Nordisk, however, sponsoring "Diabetes Funnies," which often drops the "f bomb."

I've just opened a Tumblr account and started exploring. Unfortunately, the "pharmaguy" user name was already taken and I  had to sign on as "realpharmaguy." No problem for me, but maybe pharma companies should open accounts just to claim their corporate names -- just in case they think that someday they "could" do Tumblr. Just sayin'

Using Social Media as an Early Predictor of a New Drug's Market Share

According to Gideon Mantel, co-founder and CEO of Treato, social media can predict the success of a new drug launch much faster than traditional methods.

"Many pharmaceutical companies try to measure the success of their launch based on weekly script trends," said Mantel in a blog post (here). "The difference between social media data and data derived from prescriptions is significant: social media data can predict the future, while script data record the past."

To illustrate this, Treato looked at patient-written social media posts on over 2,000 health blogs and forums to find mentions of Tecfidera (formerly called BG-12 during clinical trials), a new multiple sclerosis drug that Biogen launched on April 13. Since the launch of Tecfidera in mid-April, the most talked about MS drug in social media has been Tecfidera, bypassing all other MS medications and growing on a daily basis (see chart below):

The following is an edited conversation I had with Mantel:

listen to ‘Using Social Media as an Early Predictor of a New Drug's Market Share’ on Audioboo

"Our early prediction is that – assuming no significant side effects during the launch cycle – Tecfidera will gain significant market share, primarily taking it away from Tysabri, Copaxone, and Aubagio," said Mantel.

I await the results of real-world, traditional script data to see if Mantel's social-media-based predictions hold up. Although many patients may say they wish to switch to Tecfidera, as Gideon says, they may not do so if there are negative side effects -- including price! "The growing price sensitivity among patients will be an important factor," says Mantel, "and the current price may not be optimal (14% of the posts talk about price/insurance)."

Jerome "The Bus" Bettis Promotes Auvi-Q With and Without the Important Safety Information

Celebrity spokespeople seem to be all the rage in pharma marketing circles these days. I wonder, however, how closely the FDA is watching celebrity endorsements such as former NFLer Jerome Jerome “The Bus” Bettis's promotion of Sanofi's talking epinephrine injection, Auvi-Q, which is marketed for the treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) in people who are at risk for or have a history of these reactions.

Bettis is not just promoting anaphylaxis awareness on TV shows such as the The Doctors. On TV, Bettis is actively demonstrating how the product works and naming brand names. But he

1. does not disclose that he is being paid by Sanofi to endorse Auvi-Q, and 
2. does not mention the "important safety information" (ISI), which is required by FDA regulations whenever a pharma company or its agents promote brand name products and the conditions they treat.

Here's how Bettis hawks Auvi-Q on The Doctors:



Now, compare this to the following 3.5-minute video from the official Auvi-Q Playbook Site:

Whoops! Unfortunately, there is no option to embed this video, so I am just showing you a screen shot. You can see some ISI around the frame, but note that fully ONE-HALF of this video is devoted to communicating ISI via scrolling text and voiceover! I recorded the voiceover:

listen to ‘Auvi-Q ISI’ on Audioboo

Ah! The advantages of celebrities and unregulated TV endorsements!

Will 2013 Be the Year of "Digital Pharma?"

Today, I posted on Twitter "HCP digital spend by pharma to equal that of print this year, forecast says." That tweet is getting a lot of retweets and Mike Young (@Brandshaping) responded "The times they are a changing."

I am afraid my tweet may be misleading. I should have said "HCP digital MEASURED MEDIA spend by pharma to equal that of print this year, forecast says."

My tweet points to a chart I created from data published in a whitepaper from Compas: "Follow the Money-- a Point of View on HCP Media Trends in Pharma" (find it attached to this post). Here's my chart:

This looks pretty impressive. But let's make sure we understand what we are talking about here.

First, this is about "measured media" spending focused on healthcare professionals (HCPs). "Print Media" refers to ads in medical journals, "Reprints" refer to reprints of medical journal articles that sales reps hand out to physicians, and "Digital Media" refers to online ads placed on sites frequented by physicians (e.g., WebMD). "All Other" includes Convention Media (ads at medical conventions), In-Office Media (I'm not sure what's included in this; whatever it is, it's less than 1% of the total spend), Point of Care Media (patient record forms, prescription pads and the like), and Direct Mail.

This analysis does NOT including detailing spend, which is the biggest promotional spend by pharma.

As discussed in a previous post to Pharma Marketing Blog, the pharma industry spends about $17 billion on TOTAL physician promotion: $15 billion on detailing and $2 billion on meetings (see "U.S. e-Detailing Spending Up 74% in 2012. Yet Pharma Still NOT "'Digitally Mature'"). I assume these numbers include digital, but NOT measured media spending, digital or otherwise. Digital promotion is only 5.2% of the $17 billion total. This means that the U.S. pharma industry, which spends nearly $1 billion on professional digital promotion, has a long way to go before it reaches "digital maturity" on a par with other industries. I estimate that "par" to be 20%.

The Compas whitepaper does not indicate the dollar amount of measured media spending focused on HCPs, but I am certain that it is minuscule compared to the $17 billion mentioned above. That means, therefore, that even if HCP-focused digital measured media spending is "on a par" with print measured media spending in 2013, it is still just a drop in the overall HCP promotional bucket.