Allergan’s adequate advertising campaign
Allergan’s new rosacea treatment Rhofade is getting on formularies—and that means more promotion is on the way.
On the drugmaker’s second-quarter earnings call last week, commercial chief Bill Meury told investors that the company had begun advertising the product on Facebook and would “over the next several quarters begin to ramp up other aspects of the consumer program.”
The therapy recently landed on CVS Caremark’s formulary, which “gives you the ability to advertise more broadly,” Allergan CEO Brent Saunders said.
Currently, Rhofade, which received approval from the FDA in January, is off to a strong start, said Meury. More than 3,000 dermatologists in the US used the drug, and it already surpassed the competitor, Mirvaso.
Earlier in the year, the company recruited Tony Award-winning singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth to help raise awareness about rosacea, a facial redness condition that affects an estimated 16 million people in the U.S. The Broadway star embarked on a press tour speaking out as part of Allergan’s “Less Red, More You” campaign.
Facebook, meanwhile, has been doing everything possible to attract advertisers in the pharmaceutical field, and in this case, Allergan is a motivated and successful participant. Last fall, it released a digital campaign in Facebook for Restasis, launching a dedicated page for the med and posting patient testimonial videos. When all was done, these videos collected more than 3.5 million views, while the total work brought 35 million impressions and led to an increase in ad recall of 10.5%.
Source: fiercepharma.
