Edelman wins AstraZeneca oncology account
pharmafile | November 24, 2009 | News story | Medical Communications |Â Â AZ, EdelmanÂ
AstraZeneca has handed global PR responsibility for its oncology brands to communications agency Edelman.
The deal includes the pharma company’s cancer drugs Casodex, Zoladex, Faslodex and Iressa.
Carolyn Paul, chair of Edelman’s European health practice, will lead the account but was tightlipped on priorities.
“It is hard to say, we are literally just having the first meetings and calls,” she told Pharmafocus. “It’s a very busy area.”
Paul would also not be drawn on the scale of resources Edelman is mobilising for the account but said they will be “fairly substantial”.
“Our approach is to have a team across each brand,” she added. “The oncology field moves so quickly.”
The account will be run from Edelman’s London office and Paul reports to Louise Fairburn, AstraZeneca’s head of communications for global marketing.
Breast cancer brand Arimidex is by far the biggest seller in the Anglo-Swedish manufacturer’s oncology portfolio, with sales in the first nine months of 2009 of $1.4 billion.
Casodex is perhaps under the greatest pressure: US sales in the third quarter of this year fell 80% to $14 million after the FDA approved eight generic bicalutamide products in July.
Its sales in the US for the first nine months of 2009 were down 40% to $130 million, while generics also heavily hit the brand in Western Europe.
Nine-month sales outside the US were down 30% to $525 million.
Meanwhile sales of breast cancer drug Faslodex for that period increased by 4% in the US and 15% in the rest of the world.
Iressa received EU regulatory approval for a new indication in July and its sales (up 9% to $218 million for the nine months of the year) included $4 million in Europe.
The drug, whose rivals include Roche’s Tarceva, has been on a rocky road since its launch in 2002.
Poor data showed it failed to extend lives, and it was withdrawn in Europe, only to be rehabilitated this year as a treatment for lung cancer.
Trade magazine PRWeek reports that Edelman’s new account could be worth up to £500,000.
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