Yes I make my living on the back of DTC ads. That is one good reason I like them. But a more important reason is I learn what treatments might be available. I suffer from chronic sinusitis which makes me feel miserable much of the time. Having had two surgeries with no lasting effect, I learned through advertising about a new technique called balloon sinusplasty. It is the same thing they use to open up arteries, and it is done in a physician’s office under local anesthesia. Sinus openings get widened and better drainage prevents blockages.
-Bob Ehrlich
I consider myself knowledgeable about new health treatments as I scan the Internet for medical news daily. I discuss my sinus condition regularly with my internist. Despite this I discovered this new treatment through a television ad. It may change my quality of life. Maybe it is not right for me but seeing the ad gives me the chance to investigate its usefulness fully.
While we like to think all relevant health treatments will be raised to us by our doctors, this is just not true. My internist never raised this despite prescribing antibiotics numerous times for sinus problems. When I mentioned it to him recently, he said he was thinking of having it done himself. So, only through seeing the TV ad did I get awareness of balloon sinusplasty.
Now consider the average American who is not employed in the medical field. They need the opportunity to learn of new treatment options in the media they use regularly. For many older Americans it is still through television and print. Seeing an ad for a new drug might be their first or only source of the information. Those who want to ban drug ads would be denying that information to the patient and relying on a doctor to raise it.
In a perfect world our doctor would be up on all new drugs, tests and procedures. We know that these over-stressed physicians are not always informed on new products. All the mass media ad is doing is promoting a discussion. Critics are concerned patients overstate advertised benefits, underplay risks, and ask for expensive drugs they really do not need. There is some of that happening. On the flip side, patients like to know what their options are for treatment. In my case that discussion with my doctor happened only because I saw an ad.
Information is not inherently good or bad. Consumers need to be skeptical about any advertising. Banning information which is reviewed for accuracy by FDA is bad public policy and a DTC ban would cause many patients to remain uninformed of treatment options. In my case I am very happy to have seen an ad for a potentially life altering alternative.
In the book “The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care,” Clay Christensen, who developed the theory of disruptive innovation, stated, “There are more than 9,000 billing codes for individual procedures and units of care. But there is not a single billing code… for helping patients stay well.” In the pharmaceutical industry, disruptive innovation improves health by generating ideas that create new drugs at the expense of existing ones. It is an alliance between technological advances and new business models that dramatically changes the performance of the industry. The progressive spectrum of disruptive innovation challenges include lessons from the past showing resistance to change, implications surfacing in the present which emerge from cautious analytics and trailblazing dynamics in the future aligned with patient centricity.
As the above example shows, the advancement of pharmaceutical innovation efforts are most often prevented by established world views, opinions, customs, attitudes, societal values and complex psychological and emotional issues ingrained in the network of relationships that define individuals singly or collectively. In certain situations, innovation challenges are rejected directly because they are seen as threats to the means of support and character of many stakeholders, such as pharmaceutical companies, Federal regulatory institutions and the American Medical Association, that deploy an intangible but forceful influence on decision-making. Resistance to change in pharma emanates from industry incumbents whose jobs rely on sustaining the existing business model and political power. As Upton Sinclair said, “Never expect someone to understand change when their livelihood depends on not understanding it.”
In the future, the drug lifecycle needs to incorporate many facets of patient centricity, including the use of new technologies such as gene- and proteomics, gene therapy, nanotechnology, and Big Data driven predictive analytics. Precision medicine will identify exact patient needs and tailor molecular profiles to create the most beneficial treatment plans for patients on an individual level. New social media tools will allow patients to share information and participate in collaborative discussions with regulators and pharma.
Pharmaceutical marketing is changing. With increased industry spend, new marketing channels, a more informed consumer, and a shifting healthcare landscape, it is clear that marketers need to be smarter than ever with their investment decisions. It is also clear that DTC marketing is no longer just about pumping money into national TV ad buys (though they continue to receive substantial investment). It’s now also about targeted messaging. It’s about digital. It’s about patient engagement. In this environment, it is more complex than ever to understand how to get the right message in front of the right consumer at the right time. Marketers will need to innovate.