This two-day summit on the future of direct-to-consumer marketing will be lead by legislative experts, marketing authorities, futurists and brand leaders. Register now to attend this important industry event. By attending Reform & Refocus, you will benefit from expert analysis and predictions for DTC Marketing post-Healthcare Reform, insights from consumer marketers and market researchers on overcoming current challenges, details on how to innovatively and successfully use various media types, with a focus on the uncertain and still-developing area of social and digital media. You will also learn how to respond to budget pressure and how to find efficiencies in promotion spending. Given these tough economic times, presentations will ensure you learn how to get the most out of every marketing dollar. ______________________________________________________________________ Latest News from DTC Perspectives on Healthcare Reform Issues:
The Value Story: From the Elephant in the Room to the Gift that Keeps on Giving Moving beyond reach and frequency to the value of quality audience engagement is more than a buzz phrase. It is propelling savvy multi-channel marketers towards unprecedented wins while their competitors stay planted in yesterday's models or tinker here and there with no clear consolidated view. The one size fits all performance measure comfort zone is leaving precious data and insights that hold the clue to success in the abyss. Now is the time for data transparency; disciplined analysis, and campaign level impact reporting at every phase of campaign design, launch, optimization and expansion. The marriage of research results with real-time behavioral data completes a powerful picture of total business impact. Join the discussion and be ready to break the barriers to demonstrating success. Haya F. Taitel is Group Product Director leading the pain franchise of Pricara overseeing two analgesic products NUCYNTA ™ (The short acting has recently entered the market and long acting is undergoing NDA submission) at Johnson & Johnson. The launch readiness was based on innovative pre-launch campaign, aggressive promotional marketing and competitive positioning despite generic dominance market place. In addition, unbranded education to multiple customers represented a critical venue for changes in disease management approaches by both physicians and patients. Prior to this position, Haya oversaw the market introduction of multiple urology and women's health care products. She also served as the Director of Professional Education and Scientific Affairs at Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Sales and Marketing Division. She is a pharmacologist with 20 years industry experience (17 of which with JNJ) – comprised of marketing leadership roles, life cycle strategic planning, medical education, and clinical research. She has held positions of increasing responsibility in business and technical areas interfacing with business and scientific industry personnel, clinical opinion leaders, and consumers. A section of the healthcare reform bill proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D.Mont.) would require medical device companies to pay as much as $4 billion annually toward funding the overall reform effort.
Medical device makers, firmly opposed to this tax, have lobbied extensively against it and have threatened to pass on the costs to consumers. Recently, however, according to Bloomberg News, the device industry has softened its stance and has allowed its trade group, AdvaMed, to work with Senator Baucus on a compromise, which may see this tax cut in half. The medical device industry, unlike the pharmaceutical industry, did not agree to a specific compromise with Baucus and the Obama administration as to how much they were willing to contribute to the healthcare bill being debated in Congress. The pharmaceutical industry agreed to a much-maligned deal that would have it contribute $80 billion dollars, or $8 billion a year, to the legislation, in return for not having to make other concessions. AdvaMed spokeswoman Wanda Moebius has said the $4 billion in taxes asked by Baucus from the industry was equivalent to half of what device makers spent on research overall in 2007, and she implied that this tax would severely curtail efforts in that important area. Lawmakers from states such as Minnesota, California, Indiana and Massachusetts have come out strongly against this tax because they are home to many medical device companies. Interestingly, this list of lawmakers opposed includes not just Republicans such as Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (Calif.) and Tim Pawlenty (Minn.), but advocates of higher taxation such as Democratic Senators John Kerry (Mass.) and Al Franken (Minn.), who apparently do not favor higher taxes to fund the healthcare legislation when it affects their constituents. This tax is another divisive issue that has revived bi-partisan Senate debare, and it was not widely discussed until the Baucus bill was unveiled recently. It speaks to the host of problems expected in Congress in passing any legislation, as many Congressmen face the difficult task of funding this trillion dollar bill without alienating voters in their own districts. With healthcare and device companies, and therefore states largely to suffer in the near-term due to increased taxes at the companies, largely concentrated in states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, all states with two Democratic Senators, passage in the Senate, even of the more centrist Baucus bill, remains far from certain. DTC Perspectives reported recently on the statements by Congressman Rangel indicating his intent to make Healthcare Reform fiscally possible in part by rescinding the tax deduction for healthcare advertising, including consumer marketing campaigns. (see older news below for details) New developments were analyzed in the June Issue of DTC INSIGHTS. According to the DTC INSIGHTS analysts "The loss of a tax deduction for DTC would likely lead to significant changes in how marketers use mass media. It seems clear that legislators assume this proposal would mean fewer big budget DTC efforts on prime time TV – an unstated secondary objective of some critics of Congress." (To find out more about DTC INSIGHTS, the executive briefing published monthly and read by DTC Marketers in the know, please click here). Since Rangel's statement, the pharmaceutical industry and its media partners have been working together to present the industry's perspective to Congress. Dan Jaffe, executive vice president for government relations at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), told reporters that issues such as the advertising-tax deduction “have been dormant for decades [and] are suddenly moving rapidly in this Congress.” He added, “I have to say, they're keeping us up at night.” Legislative Expert Jim Davidson told DTC Perpectives that the seriousness and debate of this issue in Washington over the last several weeks "makes 2 years ago look like a kindergarten dry run… We came as close as we've ever come to getting DTC advertising taxed and we're still not out of the woods." Davidson further predicts that while the Senate bill on healthcare reform should leave the HELP Committee by August, a floor vote most likely won't take place before September. Jim Davidson will be keynoting at the Reform & Refocus Conference in October and delegates will get an up-to-the-minute breakdown and anaylsis of what's happening for DTC Marketing in Washington. Friday, June 19, 2009
President Obama declared Healthcare Reform the "single most important thing we can do for America 's long-term fiscal health" at an address at the AMA's National Conference Monday.
### DTC Perspectives invites you to mark your calendar now for "Reform & Refocus" and plan to attend this important industry event on October 14 - 15, 2009. | |||||||||
Congress has been more specific in how they plan to pay for the pending overhaul to the healthcare system. According to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, “one thing that's not off the table is you can pick up $37 billion knocking out the deduction for [prescription drug] advertising". Rangel is targeting the deduction both as a way to fund the proposal and to eliminate what he considers to be a corporate tax break unfairly footed by consumers. Claiming that DTC advertising causes consumers to request medications they don't need, he comments “I do it. I go to the doctor and say, ‘Did you ever think about ordering this for me?'” Rangel said. “If he says no, I don't like him, because they promised me on TV that I have no problems at all.” While DTC experts are skeptical of the $37 billion savings claim, it is certain that DTC marketing will be a focus during congressional review of the proposed policy. 
DTC and You
The DTC National Conference
Register Now for The DTC National Conference
April 7-9, 2010, Washington DC. The Formum for DTC
Thought Leaders
FREE Subscription to our Magazine
Start a free subscription now to the industry's leading
publication focused soley on DTC marketing,
DTC Perspectives Magazine is published quarterly.
Subscribe to DTC Insights
The DTC Marketer's Executive Brief - DTC INSIGHTS
takes all the information and data pertinent to DTC
and analyzes it for a busy pharma marketer.
Subscribe to Bob Ehrlich’s newsletter
A weekly blog column from DTCPI CEO Bob Ehrlich
that reflects his observations on key trends affecting
our industry.
Visit us on Facebook
DTC Perspectives, Inc is now on Facebook. Stay
Informed on the latest trends in the industry.
| ABOUT SSL CERTIFICATES |
