“Irritabelle,” The Viberzi Irritable Sidekick
I've just added a new slide to my "Gallery of Drug Advertising Mascots" PPT presentation: "Irritabelle," the Viderzi “irritable (bowel) sidekick.” Viberzi is a new drug, approved for the treatment of...
Drug Spending Growth Surges Again in 2015
Total spending on medicines in the U.S. reached $310 billion in 2015 on an estimated net price basis, up 8.5 percent from the previous year, according to a new report issued...
PhRMA Intern Retrospective: The Reminder Ad
Principle #13 of the final version of PhRMA’s Guiding Principles on Direct to Consumer Advertising about Prescription Medicines, which applies to both TV and print DTC ads, states:
"DTC television advertising that...
Majority of Physicians Do Not Understand What Level of Evidence Supports FDA’s “Breakthrough” Therapy...
In an article published by JAMA Oncology (JAMA Oncol; October 29, 2015), the authors noted that the use of superlatives to describe cancer drugs in news articles as “breakthrough,” “revolutionary,” “miracle”...
Adventures of PhRMA Intern: A Retrospective
In response to an inquiry about a violation of PhRMA’s DTC advertising guiding principles, pharmaguy received a letter from PhRMA signed mysteriously “Emily M. Johnson.” No job title was included. It...
PharmaGuy’s Pharma Marketing Buzzword Glossary
Pharma marketers cannot communicate with each other without using "buzzwords." Some critics suggest, however, that some of these buzzwords alienate patients and physicians. This is a list of my favorite pharma...
Thanks to DTC Cartoon Characters, We Know How Belsomra Works, But …
We've all seen the TV commercial for Merck's insomnia drug Belsomra. It features cuddly "sleep" and "wake" critters that help explain how Belsomra works and is different from other insomnia drugs....
25 Years of Pharma Criminal and Civil Penalties: Off-Label Marketing Tops the List, But…
According to a Public Citizen report (here), stronger enforcement is needed to deter pharmaceutical manufacturers from continuing to break the law and defraud federal and state health programs. The report –...
How FDA Regulations Stymie DTC Marketers’ Creativity: The Symbicort Case Study
You've probably seen the recent Symbicort TV ads that feature an elderly "big bad" wolf with COPD. The commercial, produced by AstraZeneca (AZ), has a line that reads: "Don't huff and...
Gallery of FDA Studies of DTC Advertising
This is my personal (partial) list of FDA studies of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising that I have commented on over the years in Pharma Marketing Blog and Pharma Marketing News. Enjoy!
...
