Pharma Maketing Blog: The Year 2014 in Images

T H E S E A R E M Y F A V O R I T E I M A G E S & P O S T S F R O M P H A R M A M A R K E T I N G B L O G I N 2 0 1 4

THE YEAR 2014 IN IMAGES

2014. Pharma Marketing Network. All rights reserved.

Pharma Marketing Blog 2014: The Year in Images

OH YEAH, BABY! SHOW ME MORE!... VIAGRA TV ADS LIKE THIS. BUT DON'T LET MY FDA SEE IT!

Wowie zowie! Is that a roll of dimes quarters in my pocket or am I just excited to see this new Viagra DTC TV ad that features what could be a MILF?

I pity the man who can’t get an erection carousing with this woman in a beach resort or even watching her on TV lounging around the beach resort telling you that “plenty of guys” have “this issue”; i.e., getting and maintaining an erection.

Posted October 1, 2014.

http://bit.ly/viagramilf

http://bit.ly/viagramilf



ANALYSIS OF FDA’S DRAFT GUIDANCE RELATING TO POSTMARKETING SUBMISSION OF INTERACTIVE PROMOTIONAL MEDIA

Usually, drug companies must submit every promotional piece -- print ad, TV ad, or drug.com web page -- to the FDA at the time of “initial dissemination” (e.g., when the TV ad first airs). “However,” says FDA, “for some interactive promotional media, submission ‘at the time of initial dissemination’ may pose a challenge for firms, particularly when these media communicate information that is displayed in real time.”

Posted January 13, 2014.

http://bit.ly/SMsubmission

http://bit.ly/SMsubmission



GLOBALLY, PHARMA’S DIGITAL SPEND IS (STILL) ONLY 6% OF TOTAL PROMOTIONAL BUDGET

Posted June 4, 2014. http://bit.ly/pharmaglobal

http://bit.ly/pharmaglobal



ANNUAL PHARMA INVESTMENT IN “ESALES,” “EDETAILING,” “VIRTUAL DETAILING” …

WHATEVER!

Posted March 21, 2014. http://bit.ly/pharmesales

http://bit.ly/pharmesales



PHARMA DTC ADVERTISING SPEND VS. TIME CONSUMERS SPEND IN VARIOUS MEDIA

I used Nielsen data for pharmadirect-to-consumer (DTC) ad spending by medium to create this version of a Meeker chart that focused on all industries.

Posted May 29, 2014.

http://bit.ly/meekpharma

http://bit.ly/meekpharma



PROMOTIONAL SPENDING IN 2013 OF THE TOP 20 BIG PHARMA SPENDERS

Obviously, some companies spend a great deal on DTC (e.g. Pfizer), whereas others spend $0 or close to $0 on DTC. I’m sure that varies year to year and depends a lot upon the type of products being promoted and the life cycle stage they are in.

This pie chart shows the overall allocation of the promotional spend of the 20 (by sales) pharma companies.

Posted May 16, 2014.

http://bit.ly/pharmapromopie2013

http://bit.ly/pharmapromopie2013



TOP DTC AD SPENDERS VIRTUALLY IGNORED DIGITAL

These top 18 brands spent $2.1 billion on DTC advertising in 2013, which is about 55% of the total DTC spend for the year.

Most of these brands, however, devoted less than 5% of their DTC ad budget on digital.

Posted April 11, 2014.

http://bit.ly/Top20DTC2013

http://bit.ly/Top20DTC2013



DO TV DTC ADS OVERSTATE RX DRUG RISKS? FDA MAY MAKE CHANGES THAT PUT PATIENTS AT

RISK

Balancing drug benefits (efficacy) against risks in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising has always been a contentious issue between pharmamarketers and the FDA. About 40% of violations in drug ads cited by the FDA between 2004 and 2013 relate to “risk minimization.” That's twice the percentage of violations relating to “overstated efficacy.”

Posted February 18, 2014.

http://bit.ly/fdadtcstudy

http://bit.ly/fdadtcstudy



PUBLIC CITIZEN PETITIONS FDA TO ADD A BLACK BOX WARNING TO LOW-T DRUG LABELING

Public Citizen called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to immediately add a black box warning about the increased risks of heart attacks and other cardio-vascular dangers to the product labels of all testosterone-containing drugs available in the U.S.

Posted January 25 February 2014.

http://bit.ly/PC-v-LowT

http://bit.ly/PC-v-LowT



ARE FDA’S EFFORTS TO IMPROVE ADVERSE EVENT REPORTING BEING HOBBLED BY

PHARMA?

Between 2003 and 2012, FDA received 588,000 death notices via Adverse Event Reports (AERs).

DEATHS reported to the FDA via its adverse event reporting system have increased dramatically in the last few years for which data is available.

FDA scrubbed a project that would have developed “predictions for safety signals that have not yet been recognized for drug candidates that have come to the FDA as New Drug Applications (NDAs),” which is a pretty radical idea.

Did the pharma industry put the kibosh on the study?


http://bit.ly/fdastudykibosh

http://bit.ly/fdastudykibosh



FDA WAKES UP TO SOCIAL MEDIA’S ABILITY TO MONITOR DRUG ADVERSE EVENTS

A recent FDA Notice of Solicitation calls for a “contractor capable of providing it with social media monitoring services capable of analyzing consumer sentiment and social media ‘buzz.’”

Specifically, one objective is to provide FDA with “surveillance through social media listening for early detection of adverse events.”

Posted February 27, 2014.

http://bit.ly/fdalistens

http://bit.ly/fdalistens



TAKEDA MAY PAY $6 BILLION PENALTY FOR HIDING ACTOS CANCER LINK

According to an article in the Financial Times, “Takeda has been ordered to pay $6bn in punitive damages for hiding a possible link between a best-selling diabetes drug and bladder cancer in one of the biggest corporate fines by a US jury. Eli Lilly, which marketed the drug in the US until 2006, was ordered to pay $3bn.”

Although Takeda has vowed to appeal the decision, I have updated my “PharmaCriminal & Civil Settlement Planetary System” diagram to put this decision in context of other fines and jury awards against the drug industry made in the past couple of years.


http://bit.ly/tsktsktakeda

http://bit.ly/tsktsktakeda



WHEN BIG PHARMA SELLS OLDER DRUGS, IS “PUTTING THE PATIENT FIRST” DEVALUED?

According to a Reuters article, “Leading global pharmaceutical companies have started to view their vast portfolios of older, established prescription drugs as vehicles for raising large sums of cash to fuel development of new medicines with far higher profit margins.”

I can’t help but interpret this trend as another example of how big pharmaceutical companies put profit before patients despite all the hype about being more patient centric.

Posted May 5, 2014.

http://bit.ly/notpatientcentric

http://bit.ly/notpatientcentric



TOTAL CME REVENUE IS UP, BUT PHARMA SUPPORT IS DOWN (AGAIN) IN 2013

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) 2013 Annual Report is out. Here’s the data regarding total CME income and breakdown according to source of income.

Posted July 15, 2014.

http://bit.ly/PharmaCME

http://bit.ly/PharmaCME



FDA'S TEN COMMANDMENTS?

Remember FDA's Social Media Webinar?

Listeners were surprised that the FDA presenters were simply reading the guidance documents verbatim.

This reminded me of Moses reading the ten commandments to the Israelites, who afterward agreed to obey those laws. Whether or not the pharma industry will obey the current drafts of FDA’s “ten commandments” remains to be seen. Personally, I think the industry wants to send Moses, er, Abrams, back up the mountain.

Posted July 21, 2014.

http://bit.ly/FDAten

http://bit.ly/FDAten



HOMER SIMPSON TRIES TO UNDERSTAND FDA’S SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES

FDA Launches Social Media Educational Initiative for PharmaPosted April 1, 2014.

http://bit.ly/homerpie

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social MediaPosted April 7, 2014.

http://bit.ly/homerlove

http://bit.ly/homerpie

http://bit.ly/homerlove



WILL TWITTER’S CARD TECHNOLOGY ALLOW PHARMA BRANDS TO POST FDA-COMPLIANT

PROMOTIONAL TWEETS?

I reviewed three “workarounds” that might allow pharmamarketers to post promotional tweets that satisfy FDA's recently published guidelines:

1. Chain of Tweets

2. Tweets with Images

3. Twitter Cards

Posted June 10, 2014.

http://bit.ly/FDAtweetblock

http://bit.ly/FDAtweetblock



CORRECTING MISINFORMATION: ELIMINATE THE “INFLUENCE PRONG,” SAYS PHARMA

In comments to the FDA, PhRMA wrote:

“PhRMA recommends that FDA will provide an adequate safe harbor for companies to correct misinformation about medicines online by expanding the scope of the Draft Guidance through elimination of the ‘influenced’ prong of FDA‘s definition of applicable communication.”

Posted September 29, 2014.

http://bit.ly/phrmaprong

http://bit.ly/phrmaprong



“WIKIPEDIA IS AN INSANE PLACE” - PHARMASHOULD BE WARY ABOUT CORRECTING

“MISINFORMATION”

“Wikipedia is an insane place, and it cannot be handled or used as if sane people administer it,” said Eric Barbour, a moderator of Wikipediocracy(wikipediocracy.com), a website dedicated to criticizing Wikipedia, in a comment submitted to the docket regarding FDA's recent draft guidelines for correcting third-party “misinformation” on Internet/social media platforms such as Wikipedia.

As evidence of that, I offer this image of WikipedianKevin Gorman, formerly known as “Wiki-Gnome.”


http://bit.ly/insanewiki

http://bit.ly/insanewiki



DIE-HARD PHARMA RX BRAND MARKETERS SHOULD GET OUT OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA GAME

The FDA has been the butt of jokes on pundit blogs and also behind “closed doors” at industry conferences. In particular, the agency was criticized for not being technically savvy enough to understand the nuances of social media and search engine advertising.

Two savvy social media marketing consultants to the pharma industry contend that “die-hard” Rx brand pharma marketers need to forget about hawking brand name drugs via social media and focus on using social media to provide real benefits to patients.


http://bit.ly/diehardpharma

http://bit.ly/diehardpharma



PATIENT ENGAGEMENT: WHO’S THE ENGAGER & WHO’S THE ENGAGEE?

“There is a subtle form of power-politics implied in just about every deployment of ‘patient engagement’ you're likely to encounter that can serve to deprive the patient of authority rather than promote the autonomy of the patient,” said Andrew Spong.

“More often than not, pharmaceutical companies’ ‘patient engagement’ is still done to, not done with patients. It’s small wonder that they fail so often as a consequence.”


http://bit.ly/patengage

http://bit.ly/patengage



MAD MEN VS. MED MEN: BRAND VS. PATIENT

In the September 2014 issue of MM&M, I came across what these days is referred to as “content marketing,” but what MM&M calls “ViewPoint.” I’m referring to the piece titled “Medical marketing needs mainstream Mad Men.”

The premise of the piece is the pharmaceutical industry should hire agencies that “don't know the difference between the FDA and FDR. But [who] know branding.”


http://bit.ly/mad-v-med

http://bit.ly/mad-v-med



BRAND VS CORPORATE: A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA

“Do you want someone from corporate communications talking to your audience or should it be someone from the brand team who understands your audience and can converse with them in a meaningful way that adds value to your brand?”

Posted May 6, 2014.

http://bit.ly/pr-v-mkting

http://bit.ly/pr-v-mkting



“LEAKY” PHARMA MOBILE APPS AND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF BIG DATA

“A secret 2012 British intelligence document says that spies can scrub smartphone apps that contain details like a user’s ‘political alignment’ and sexual orientation.”

Which leads me to wonder: What kinds of data can “leak” from Pharma mobile apps and who besides spies are likely to “scrub” pharma apps for these data?

Posted January 28, 2014.

http://bit.ly/LeakyPharmaApps

http://bit.ly/LeakyPharmaApps



A CALL FOR PHARMA TO DEVELOP MOBILE HEALTH “GUIDING PRINCIPLES”

Shouldn’t the pharmaceutical industry (e.g., via PhRMA) differentiate itself from “wild west” developers by being pro-active in issuing mHealthGuiding Principles for Mobile Health Apps Developed by the Pharmaceutical Industry in much the same manner as it developed other self-regulatory guidelines such as the DTC Guiding Principles and the Code on Interactions With Healthcare Professionals?

IMHO, the answer is YES!

Posted August 11, 2014.

http://bit.ly/mHealthPrinciples

http://bit.ly/mHealthPrinciples



IS IMS HEALTH’S MOBILE HEALTH APP “CERTIFICATION” PROGRAM DOOMED TO #FAIL?

“Welcome to the wild, wild, west of mobile health apps,” says the voice over of an IMS Health animated Youtube video that promotes a new mobile health app ranking service.

IMS mentions “certifications” as part of its ranking process. This is a red flag for me because mobile health app certification programs are tricky and prone to failure.

Posted December 12, 2014.

http://bit.ly/mobileranking

http://bit.ly/mobileranking



COST TO BRING A NEW DRUG TO MARKET IS $2.6 BILLION - 3X MORE THAN IN 2003!

According to a new study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD), which receives funding from the pharmaceutical industry, the estimated cost to develop a new Rx drug for marketing in the U.S. is $2,558 million or $2.6 billion (see press release). That’s 3.25 times the $800 previously estimated and frequently cited by the pharmaceutical industry, pharmatrade publications, and the general media.

Posted November 19, 2014.

http://bit.ly/tuftsnewdata

http://bit.ly/tuftsnewdata



ET TU, AMGEN? BLINCYTO’S BLING! BLING! PRICE TAG!

FDA approved Amgen's Blincyto(blinatumomab) on December 3, 2014, as a second-line treatment for Philadelphia chromosome-negative precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which affects around 6,000 patients in the US.

The price tag of $178,000 per two-cycle course makes it one of the most costly drugs on the market.

Posted December 18, 2014.

http://bit.ly/blincytoblong

http://bit.ly/blincytoblong



WISHING YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Pharma Maketing Blog: The Year 2014 in Images

Health & Medicine

Transcript of Pharma Maketing Blog: The Year 2014 in Images