Critical Thinking Within Pharma DTC: Help Wanted

Pharma is addicted to DTC TV ads, even when it doesn’t make sense. When your product has a list of side effects that would scare even an HCP, it’s time to say, “Maybe mass-market TV isn’t the way to go. Today, you can laser target patients online versus the mass market.

Abbvie has been running TV ads for Vraylar, a drug used for bipolar and major depressive depressive disorder. Most will turn to the website for more information and read safety information, which is scary. Vraylar may cause stroke and neuroleptic malignant syndrome along with uncontrolled body movements. And that’s just the top three warnings.

So, what was Abbvie thinking? Well, they probably have market research showing that their TV ads were effective, but they don’t have research that can measure the target audience’s reaction to going to the website and reading the fair balance. I wouldn’t need research to tell me that the potential side effects far outweigh the possible benefits in patients’ and caregivers’ minds.

There are so many support groups for both conditions that using mass-market TV ads doesn’t make sense. An estimated 2.8% of U.S. adults had bipolar disorder in the past year. Past year prevalence of bipolar disorder among adults was similar for males (2.9%) and females (2.8%) that’s about 6 million Americans. That’s a pretty small…