Novartis launch innovative leukaemia awareness campaign
pharmafile | March 30, 2006 | News story | Research and Development |
Novartis has launched an innovative new campaign to raise awareness of leukaemia treatment among the UK's general practitioners; a move it hopes will support its drug Glivec.
Launched in 2001, Glivec was one of the first of a new generation of medicines that target cancer, its pill formulation being more convenient than traditional chemotherapy and with fewer unpleasant side effects.
The drug has been a huge success for Novartis, and is now licensed to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia and gastro-intestinal stromal tumours (GIST).
Glivec earned $2.2 billion in 2005, making it the company's second biggest product.
The drug has seen wide uptake in the UK, with hospitals in England spending 38 million pounds on it in 2004 – more than any other NICE-appraised product.
Now the company wants to raise awareness of the drug among GPs to ensure as many patients as possible have the choice of receiving Glivec instead of older treatments.
Around 600 new CML patients are diagnosed in England and Wales each year, and if untreated the average life expectancy is between 4-6 years. Novartis believes some patients are missing out on the NICE-approved first line treatment.
The pharma company decided to raise awareness in primary care after research confirmed some patients receiving repeat prescriptions from their GPs were still taking older medicines.
Ellie Jones of Novartis Oncology, said: "We adopted what is a unique approach in a specialist secondary care sector in order to raise awareness about appropriate patient management and treatment within the GP community."
Novartis has teamed up with a new communications agency, Cherry, to create the awareness campaign for GPs, which includes adverts in the GP press, an educational website as well as sales force material.
Novartis says CML patients on older treatments such as Hydrea (hydroxyurea), Introna or Roferon (interferon alpha) face a significantly worse outlook than those given Glivec.
Glivec's very high cost – 1,557 pounds for a 30 tablet course - means the awareness campaign needs just a handful of new CML patients to be referred to a specialist for it to be effective.
Novartis Oncology negotiated with its primary care division for the company's GP sales team to help raise awareness, even though Glivec is a secondary care product.
Sales reps will do this by giving GPs an information card backing up the campaign after completing their details on other products.
The website promoted by the advert and sales force, www.cmlfuture.com, contains a range of information on CML, including how to manage and refer patients.
The innovative campaign is a good example of niche marketing, a developing area in pharmaceutical marketing. The industry is seeing innovative specialist treatments, like Glivec or Roche's breast cancer treatment Herceptin, replace traditional mass market blockbusters as its biggest brands, and must adjust its marketing strategies in response.
Communications agency Cherry, was set up in November last year by managing director John Goundry, client services director Rupert Whitehead and creative director Phil Stockdale.
The three principals previously worked together in Big Blue. The central London advertising agency employs a staff of eight, and is working on a range of ethical and OTC accounts in addition to Novartis' Glivec.
