SUMMARY:
- Biogen defends the indefensible.
- Unvaccinated people are putting us all at risk for COVID.
- The trend of politics over science is disturbing.
- Pharma seems to have a policy of “don’t say anything to rock the boat.”
Category: As I See It
SUMMARY:
- DTC marketing is not the reason why prescription drugs cost so much.
- DTC ads raise awareness around health conditions.
- DTC ads do NOT lead to unnecessary Rxs.
- The FDA needs to study what people do when they see a DTC ad.
SUMMARY:
- 99 percent of covid-19 deaths in June were among the unvaccinated.
- 29 percent of Americans said they were unlikely to get vaccinated — up from 24 percent three months earlier.
- Most workers do not want their own employer to require vaccination, including the vast majority of unvaccinated workers (92%).
- The authority of state governments to mandate vaccinations is clear — it goes all the way back to a 1905 Supreme Court case.
- Herd immunity may be impossible because of anti-vaxxers.
SUMMARY:
- Even though the Delta variant of COVID is highly contagious, people are still choosing not to get vaccinated.
- Concerns about safety, fear of unknown side effects, and misinformation about COVID-19 are some reasons why people may not accept the vaccine.
- Social media has a lot of health misinformation bet they alone can’t be blamed.
- The media stories about the FDA. CDC and new drugs have fostered an era of mistrust with some people.
- DTC marketers need to be more forthcoming when it comes to drug trials and side effects.
SUMMARY:
- Pfizer asks for accelerated approval for a COVID booster shot even though the FDA says it’s unnecessary.
- From 2016 to 2020, the 14 leading drug companies spent $577 billion on stock buybacks and dividends—$56 billion more than they spent on R&D over the same period.”
- From 2016 to 2020, compensation for the 14 companies’ top executives totaled $3.2 billion.
- The drug industry is driven by profits, not by patient’s needs.
SUMMARY:
- TV continues to be the dominant channel for DTC advertising.
- Some of the TV spots for drugs are horrible, and some products should even be on TV because of terrible fair balance.
- TV ads only drive awareness as the first step for online health seekers. More conversations are happening on social media, and pharma seems to be immune to the conversations.
- One of the reasons for such bad TV is the lack of talent within DTC marketing.
- Agencies are equally responsible for bad DTC TV.
SUMMARY:
- The debate around Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug continues to rage.
- The clinical evidence supporting the approval of the drug is at best “weak.”
- How could the FDA approve a drug with such poor clinical data?
- How can Biogen’s employees continue to work for a company that is raping taxpayers for a drug that doesn’t work?
SUMMARY:
- Consumers don’t real pay attention to fair balance in TV ads.
- Pharma TV ads drive people online to search for more information.
- Safety pages on Pharma product websites continue to have high utility.
- Only requirement in TV ads should be for “boxed” products.
