Pharmaceutical Executive-03-01-2007

Creating a breakthrough pharma campaign in today's world of me-too (and me-three and -four) drugs-not to mention marketing mania-forces brand teams to think of new ways to capture consumer and physician attention. In the sleep and cholesterol categories, the competition is so fierce that agencies are using talking beavers and comparing food to family members to stamp brands on consumer brains.

There are good reasons why we shouldn't permit lifestyle drugs on the market. But as a society, we've already shown that those reasons don't mean much to us.

The latest dealmaking trends: Early-stage is back in favor. There's more money to be made in being acquired than in going public. And license deals are putting more on the back end.

Critics asked for a reevaluation of new drugs a year after launch. FDA's plan to issue report cards on new drugs responds to that demand-but not completely.

For several decades, conventional wisdom in the pharmaceutical industry has held that a large sales force is the key to commercial success. However, in recent years, a number of warning signs have emerged about the effectiveness and long-term viability of this expensive asset. While few are saying it publicly, a number of pharma executives are now exploring the possibility that it could be only a matter of time before the industry's dependence on personal selling comes to an end.

The UK has benefited from the stem-cell debate in the US. Several scientists have fled to Europe's more favorable regulatory stance.

Pharma ad campaigns increasingly rely on fear and humor to capture consumer attention. But be aware: Balance is key.

Big, bold, and brash, Frank Baldino has built Cephalon into one of the nation's most dynamic biotechs. The company, based in suburban Philadelphia, is 20-years-old this year, and is already marking its birthday with a flurry of honors. In January, Cephalon was inducted into the World Economic Forum's Community of Global Growth Companies-a tribute to a 44 percent increase in annual revenue (to $1.67 billion in 2006) and its new footprints in Europe and Asia.

I'm convinced that providence takes a hand in many careers. But it's not a free ride or a guarantee of success. Providence can put you in the right place at the right time. What happens when you're there is up to you.

Are your static banner ads underperforming? Are you paying through the nose for the perfect ad position only to discover that your click-through rates are in the low single digits? Chances are that your tricked-out, flashy pharma ad is being ignored because people aren't proactively looking for the information that it's offering.

Let's face it: no brand manager wants their drug listed on the third or fourth formulary tier. But the reality is that brands often do wind up with low coverage, making them more expensive for consumers.

Pharma companies today are focused on driving prescriptions. But just because physicians are prescribing a brand doesn't mean that they are committed to it. Who's to say a doctor won't jump ship the moment a flashier new drug comes on the scene?

Partnerships with US drug firms haven't always worked out the way Japanese companies would have liked.

We all know that pharma is facing hard times: cut-throat competition, regulatory constraints, patent expirations, rusty pipelines, rising generics, falling revenues-and, perhaps most important, a firestorm of consumer anger over drug prices and safety now being restoked by the new Democratic Congress. Nevertheless, industry persists in "staying the course"-sound familiar?-rather than charting a bold new strategy. Its two top priorities remain opposing government price controls and thwarting patent laws favorable to generics. These defensive tactics are hardly the hallmark of leadership.

When Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler took the podium in January and announced that the struggling company would scale back and restructure its operations, he did more than just signal the end of an era. He proved that to turn around Pfizer-and in a way, the industry at large-companies need to hack away the parts that just aren't working anymore.