Commercials make antidepressant a top-seller
August 7, 2007
Awoman is curled up on a couch in a dark room, wearing baggy clothes and a pained look. Her phone rings. “Carol, are you there?” the caller asks. Carol doesn’t budge.
“Depression is hard . . . it hurts in so many ways,” says the announcer in a 60-second commercial.
If you missed the stark, powerful commercial for Eli Lilly and Co.’s antidepressant Cymbalta, you won’t have to wait long for it to roll around again — or another one like it. The branding effort, now 2 years old, is designed to make Cymbalta a household name on a par with Prozac, an older antidepressant and Lilly’s top-selling drug before its patent expired in 2001. Last year, Lilly shelled out $157.1 million on consumer advertising about Cymbalta, and the investment is paying off.
After just three years on the market, Cymbalta has become Lilly’s fastest-growing drug and its No. 2 seller overall. Sales nearly doubled last year to $1.3 billion worldwide, and they’re up 77 percent for the first six months of this year.
In the process, Cymbalta is grabbing market share from established competitors, including Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, maker of Effexor, and Forest Laboratories, which makes Lexapro.
Antidepressants are a huge category for pharmaceutical companies. The U.S. market was $16.2 billion in 2005 and is growing by about 5 percent a year, according to Espicom Healthcare Intelligence.
But consumer groups and medical professors long have criticized direct-to-consumer advertising of drug brands, saying it relies on emotion, overstates the benefits and understates side effects.
“People go to their doctor, ask for something they’ve seen on TV, and that leads to over-prescribing, over-medicating of America, and a horrendous waste of money,” said Bill Vaughn, a senior policy analyst for health care at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.
Lilly says the Cymbalta commercials help people suffering from depression realize they are not alone and should reach out.
“Patients have told us, “Finally, someone understands what I’m going through,’ ” said Phyllis Ferrell, Cymbalta marketing director.
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The first phase of Lilly’s “Depression Hurts” marketing effort was an unbranded campaign focusing just on the disease, which affects about 121 million people worldwide.
The company launched the brand portion of the campaign in April 2006, introducing viewers to Cymbalta as the answer to depression and its related aches and pains.
The catchphrases from its series of commercials (”Where does depression hurt? Everywhere. Who does depression hurt? Everyone.”) have caught on, with imitations and parodies on YouTube and in blogs.
By the end of the 60-second ads, the patients have taken their Cymbalta and are getting their lives together. Carol, the woman who wouldn’t answer the phone, has brushed her hair, put on a nice sweater and is smiling and answering her phone.
Lilly’s Web site on the topic (www.depressionhurts.com) includes an interactive checklist of symptoms; a three-dimensional portrayal of chemical pathways in the brain and nervous system that regulate mood; patient stories and treatment options. Lilly also gives patients a glossy, 36-page booklet on depression treatment, with tips for feeling better, along with some emotional punch. One page shows a sad-eyed dog waiting for its master, who is suffering from depression, to take it for walks again.
The Web site, TV commercials and print ads have garnered an armload of awards in marketing contests. But some psychiatrists question whether Cymbalta is really the best medicine.
“Yes, depression often does include physical pain, and as your depression improves, your pain often improves,” said Dr. Daniel Carlat, a Massachusetts psychiatrist. “But whether Cymbalta is actually more effective for treating this pain hasn’t been proven in crucial head-to-head tests with other drugs.”
Lilly concedes that point, but adds that Cymbalta is the only antidepressant that has been approved for pain. The FDA approved the drug for treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, a condition that affects about 5 million Americans
Posted by toshko under Anit Depressant News |