PBAfacts.com: No Laughing Matter

A couple of nights ago while watching TV, a strange ad appeared and caught my attention before I could fast forward.

The ad showed "People who Burst out crying" and who "lAugh uncontrollably." At first my wife and I thought it was a Robert Smigel, SNL comedy spoof. My wife asked "Is this for real?" Then we realized, yes, it was for real. It was a PseudoBulbar Affect awareness ad by Avanir Pharmaceuticals, which markets NUEDEXTA, a treatment for this condition.

The ad promoted a free PBA "Facts Kit," which includes patient stories and one of those "self assessment" quizzes. It urged me to go to the web site -- pbafacts.com -- to get the booklet. I'm on the site now. Here's what it looks like:

Click on image for an enlarged view.

I have a few issues with this campaign.

Pharmaguy's Predictions for 2014

Last year at this time I made "Some Interesting Pharma Predictions for 2013". How well did I do? Well, although there is still one day left in 2013, let's review a couple of last year's predictions and then see what's in my crystal ball for 2014.

What I predicted for 2013: "Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Spending Will Continue to Decline"

I based this on the general economy, which I thought would still be in bad shape and thus continue to have a "negative impact on DTC advertising causing a slow death by a thousand cuts."

Early data for the first half of 2013 as reported by Pharmalot, however, suggests that DTC spending rose by 1.2% in the first half of 2013. The total spend during that period was $1.82 billion. DTC spending on television rose nearly 3.8 percent, to $1.1 billion (61% of the total) during that period. Internet advertising -- excluding search -- rose 4 percent to $113.6 million (6% of the total). Magazine spending was flat, while DTC spending in newspapers, billboards and radio all plunged – 27 percent, 39 percent and 48 percent, respectively.

Assuming the 1.2% increase holds up for the entire year's spending, the total would be $3.51 billion (see chart below; click on chart for an enlarged view). 

One caveat: We may be comparing Nielsen data "oranges" (orange bars) to Kantar Media "apples" (last red bar) because the two companies use different methodologies to estimate ad spending. Consequently, the jury is still out on my prediction for 2013 DTC ad spending -- it's too close to call.

What I predict for 2014...

Where Have All the (Critical) Pharma Bloggers Gone, Long Time Passing?

Effective December 31, 2013, UBM Canon will cease producing the MedAdNews, Pharmalive, Pharmalot, eKnowledgeBase and R&D Directions brands (read the announcement here). Everyone in the Pharma Blogosphere was surprised and saddened by this announcement. I think Richard Meyer of World of DTC Marketing Blog expressed it best:

"This is a loss for the industry that is very much at a crossroads of marketing to patient, consumers and health care professionals. Ed Silverman, the author of Pharmalot, will especially be missed as his voice and stories added insight to the complex and changing world of healthcare marketing. We need people like Ed, John Mack and others to be the [conscience] of our industry and remind everyone that developing good products is good medicine which in turn means good business. I shall miss the publication very much."

Back in 2007 I surveyed readers and asked them: How Readable, Credible & Useful are Pharma Blogs? Pharmalot was in the number one or two position in all these categories (see chart above left and read more about the survey here).

At that time, Pharmalot was owned by The Star-Ledger of New Jersey and garnered accolades from The Financial Times and the Association of Health Care Journalists, not to mention its readers as noted in my survey. Despite such accolades, the Star-Ledger gave Pharmalot and Ed Silverman the boot in January 2009 (read "Pharmalot Folds: Good Bye and Good Luck to Ed Silverman").

Ed, however, was able to negotiate a deal with The Star-Ledger to retain the Pharmalot brand and find a new owner with the MedAdNews people. I believe this was prior to UBM Canon buying the parent company. In any case, Pharmalot lived on.

What will happen to Pharmalot this time around?

Can Pharma Marketing and R&D Profitably Coexist?

John LaMattina over at Forbes blog (here) is very concerned about the drug industry's current reputation, which has sunk to new lows since George W. Merck made this comment:

"We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been."

"The culprits in this decline have been corporate types," says LaMattina, "particularly the sales and marketing folks (my emphasis), who are perceived as relentlessly driving to maximize profits at the expense of the welfare of patients."

This view is not surprising considering that LaMattina was Pfizer's former President of R&D. What is surprising, however, is what LaMattina suggested a few sentences later in his post.

Pharma: The Year 2013 in Images

These are my favorite images that appeared in Pharma Marketing Blog posts made in 2013. It was a very interesting year, at least for me. Unfortunately, to date, it has been another year without FDA social media guidance! See slide #12 for this year's anti-Abrams image. Enjoy!

Pharma Marketing Blog: The Year 2013 in Images from Pharma Guy

Beware of Tweets Made by Hired Guns: Do You Have a Policy for That?

An ex-employee of Gedeon Richter, which is the largest biotechnology and pharmaceutical company based in Hungary, complained to the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) -- the policing arm of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) -- about two tweets sent by an events company engaged by Gedeon Richter.

The first tweet, which was sent on 9 November 2012, read "Register for the event 'Sharing surgical experience after the use of ulipristal acetate in fibroid patients'". The second tweet, sent on 22 November 2012, read "Places available at the Nottingham symposium on uterine fibroids."

PMCPA deemed that only one of these tweets violated the ABPI Code of Practice. Can you guess which one?

The PMCPA concluded that the tweet of 9 November was promotional because it named a prescription only medicine (ulipristal acetate) and referred to a potential use (in fibroid patients). A breach of the Code was ruled because a prescription only medicine had been advertised to the public via the tweet.

This is interesting for several reasons.

Should UnBranded Disease Awareness Ads Mention Treatment Risks?

False and misleading drug ads can harm consumers and the healthcare system. In order to limit the harm from false Rx drug advertising, FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) tracks several kinds of regulatory violations such as:

• Risk omission or minimization 
• Superiority claims 
• Overstatement of efficacy 
• Unsubstantiated claim 
• Broadening of indication 
• Promotion of an unapproved use 
• Promotion of an unapproved compound

According EyeonFDA, which has compiled data from FDA Warning and Notice of Violation Letters since 2004, "omission" or "minimization" of risk information is by far the most commonly-cited violation (see chart).

This applies to FDA-regulated branded pharma ads, but what about unbranded "disease awareness" ads, which are NOT regulated by the FDA* (see P.P.S.)? When these ads mention the benefits of "drug treatments," should they also mention risks of these treatments and/or life-style changes like branded ads are required to do?

Being Too "Patient-Centric": Spying on Patients on Social Media

I've written recently about the need for pharmaceutical companies to institute Customer Experience Centers of Excellence (here). This was in response to hearing about several other types of "Centers of Excellence" popping up inside pharma companies and my conversation with Dyan Bryson, VP, Patient Enablement Services at Indegene Lifesystems Pvt. Ltd., about "putting the patient at the center" (listen to podcast "Why is Putting the Patient at the Center So Difficult?").

"Patient-Centricity" seems to be an overused buzzword among pharma marketers these days. So overused that Michael McLinden, chief strategy officer at Mc|K Healthcare, authored an MM&M piece titled "Stop using the term 'patient-centric'—and other rules for the New Pharma Value Proposition" (here).

"It's no coincidence that the rise of the term 'patient-centric' has been paralleled by the decline in public perceptions of the pharmaceutical industry," says McLinden who implies that consumers believe "too many patient-centric programs turn out to be thinly veiled promotional efforts, and that has contributed to their cynicism and disillusion with our business."

"Admit it," says McLinden, "how many of us have been involved in reviewing promotional materials or a planning document where someone says, 'We need to insert the word ‘patient' in here in a few places,' and everyone nods in assent?"

That's not really being "patient-centric," of course. But it is possible to be TOO patient-centric. Let me explain...

Does Pharma Really Need a 12-Step Program for Recovery of It's Reputation? Or Will One Step Be Sufficient?

You've heard of the 12-Step Program of Alcohol Anonymous and you may have even heard of "The Twelve Steps of Pharma Social Marketers Anonymous" (here). But have you heard of the "12 [Steps the] Pharma Industry Can [Take] to Rebuild Real Public Trust" posted by Luke Timmerman over at Xconomy blog (here)?

I usually don't like lists for a number of reasons (see "10 Reasons Why I Hate Lists"), but I like 12-Step lists because I can paraphrase the AA steps so that they are relevant to the pharmaceutical industry as I did here.

But rather than do that, let me review a few of the steps recommended by Timmerman that are relevant to pharma marketing & sales and determine if his 12-Step Program is really necessary.

My Man in Milan

You have to be a big guy or gal in the pharma social media arena to wear the shirt off my back.

Davide Bottalico, MD, Digital Marketing Manager at Roche, Italy, fits the bill as is obvious from this photo taken at the IAB Forum 2013 Milano.

Recall that Davide and the entire Roche Digital Academy Team received the 4th Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award back in October (see here).

Davide, I have one request...

The Latest in Drug Safety: PhRMA Says Throw Unused Drugs in Household Trash

"For the second time," reports Pharmalot (here), "the pharmaceutical industry is challenging a local government over an ordinance that requires drugmakers to cover the cost of a prescription drug ‘take back,’ or disposal program.

"This time, the trade groups representing brand-name drugmakers, biotechs, generic drugmakers and over-the-counter purveyors have filed a lawsuit against the King County Board of Health in Washington."

The plaintiffs are the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, the Biotechnology Industry Association, and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (the trade association consisting of manufacturers and distributors of over-the-counter drugs and nutritional supplements).

So, what does the drug industry recommend we do with our unused and out-of-date pills?

PhRMA is promoting a "free, easy and safe method of home disposal of unused and expired medication." So, what exactly is their "safe" method of disposal?

Pharma Needs Customer Experience Centers of Excellence

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about "centers of excellence" at pharma companies as in "Digital Center of  Excellence" and "Content Center of Excellence." I heard the latter mentioned today in the #PharmaContent Twitter chat session, which follows ExL Pharma's Content Marketing conference now going on in Philadelphia.

This slide from a presentation by Rebecca Lieb, Industry Analyst, THE ALTIMETER GROUP, and author of "Content Marketing," explains how to organize a "Content Center of Excellence":

Wow! This is pretty complicated and involves multiple executive-level stakeholders, including an "executive steering committee"! Of course, this would be overkill if implemented to develop the usual type of pharma content such as "talk to your doctor" and "you might have Low-T if you scored 70 or more on this quiz."

I'm thinking that if pharma spends that amount of executive-level resources on tactical issues like content development and digital marketing, why aren't there any strategic-level "Customer Experience Centers of Excellence?"

What do I mean by that?