With patents for Lipitor and Norvasc expiring soon, Pfizer is revving up the Celebrex ad machine:
The ads for the Pfizer painkiller Celebrex feature a man holding a boy’s hand as they walk up a stadium staircase. “52 steps won’t keep you from taking him out to the ballgame,” they say.But a heart attack would.
Each ad includes a boldface warning that begins, “Important Information: Celebrex may increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke that can lead to death.”
AdJab comments:
While Pfizer was holding off on advertising Celebrex sales dropped dramatically. As the article states, that’s a strong lesson in how much the pharmaceutical companies are now reliant on direct-to-consumer advertising. Pfizer obviously thinks restarting DTC ads is important enough to risk the ire of critics and potential backlash that could come from the tactic. The company has not yet made a decision whether or not to expand the renewed campaign to television, where it would likely really start to feel the heat.
Related posts:
- The return of Celebrex
- Medical device ads
- Celebrex: The new ad
- There are some physicians who say DTC ads are a good thing
- Havidol – people fell for it
- Obesity and heart attacks
- P4P: Implications for patients
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Patients are taking a greater role in their own health care. Direct-to-consumer advertising helps them do that by suggesting when a trip to their doc may help them.
There are risks – from trivial to dying – from taking any drug. Pfizer is telling patients upfront what those risks are.
Critics of DTC advertising like Sidney Wolfe want to “nanny” the American population into thinking that only a paternalistic medical-government-lawyer coalition will protect the people from all adverse medication effects. The American people are too smart to be shystered like that!
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