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CMS Aids in Acceleration of Broader Telehealth Adoption

August 27, 2020 0

With the rapid use of telehealth resulting from the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new toolkit to help the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) accelerate their adoption of telehealth coverage during this time. The toolkit is designed to walk states through identifying policies that they will need to address to facilitate virtual health services as well as what issues or obstacles they should be considering as they implement or expand their usage of telehealth.

As states navigate their virtual health needs and coverage policies, they need to review the patient populations that are eligible for these services, what coverage and reimbursement policies are or will be, and what special considerations may be needed for pediatric patients. States also need to evaluate whether a practitioner or provider can appropriately deliver care using virtual health. Are there any limitations or training needed for the delivery of such services? If the medical professional can provide care in this manner, issues such as eligibility, licensure, credentialing, and payments need to be factored in next. Additionally, technology requirements need to be considered as there are a variety of options that fall within the the virtual health category – video chat, audio-only communications, and remote patient monitoring to name a few.

“While not all patient interactions can be delivered through telehealth, our clinicians on the frontlines need every tool in their arsenal to fight this invisible enemy,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma in the news release. “I'm urging states to use this toolkit to make sure our Medicaid patients, particularly our children, can continue to receive needed care from the safety of their homes.”

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Ehrlich on Creative

Multiple Sclerosis – A Competitive DTC Category

August 26, 2020 0
The multiple sclerosis (MS) category is increasing its DTC use. Historically, low incidence diseases have used print and digital targeted efforts rather than mass. That has changed over the last few years as drugs for Hep C, HIV, lung cancer, and other lower incidence categories have gone mass media including television.

Approximately 1 million Americans have MS with 12,000 newly diagnosed cases each year. This is more prevalent in women. New treatments have been making this a more competitive marketplace. Novartis’ Mayzent and EMD Serono’s Mavenclad joined the mix in 2019. Genentech’s Ocrevus was approved in 2017. Genzyme’s Aubagio has been around since 2012.

The big spender is Ocrevus at about $100 million over the past 12 months. While MS has been advertised using limited print historically, Ocrevus has gone full multimedia, including a huge television investment. Ocrevus started its campaign in late 2019. They use print, TV, and display ads along the theme “Dear MS.” This is an MS patient telling the MS disease they found a new treatment to help them take back control.

Using a vignette approach, each patient profiled tells MS that they used to be controlled and defined by the disease. Now, they found Ocrevus and have more space to live their lives. The ad is impactful, using real sufferers and an arresting first visual. The 60-second ad is nicely balanced with 25 seconds of benefits, 25 seconds of fair balance, and 10 second wrap up stating MS does not get to control the sufferer, with the end line “MS can’t own us.” The print ad is themed the same as television with the “Dear MS” headline. It states Ocrevus is a 2x a year treatment in the headline.

Aubagio has done a good job with their print based campaign. With a lower budget than Ocrevus of about $18 million, they used a headline in a two-page spread that reads, “To Find A Way to Keep Moving Forward.” Above the headline is an explanatory smaller type saying “With Relapsing MS Your Goal Is.” I am a big fan of eye catching headlines in an easy to read font, on a background that makes the headline stand out. Using white lettering on blue background accomplishes that. Aubagio, also in a sub headline, states it is a once a day pill.That is important since some MS drugs require infusion.

What I also like about the Aubagio campaign is its consistency. They have used the same headline for the past two years. The only change has been the color of the background which seems to be rotating with the blue version. Both versions show a 30-something female jogging along which goes with the moving forward headline.

Mayzent has just started its consumer print campaign with a two-page spread. They are going for an emotional approach of a woman with a cane, pictured with her child. Their indication is for secondary progressive MS where there is a worsening condition.

Zeposia, an oral pill from Bristol Myers Squibb, was approved March 2020 so we can expect that to be added to the DTC mix likely in 2021. Numerous drugs in oral and infusion doses are in phase 3 trials so this category will remain active for DTC. What is increasingly clear is that most new brands believe DTC is an important part of their marketing strategy.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Bob Ehrlich

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Disease Education- Neurocrine Biosciences

August 19, 2020 0

There are a number of drug makers that do disease education ads. Those companies have a drug that treats the disease or have one about to be approved. Disease education ads make financial sense when a drug company has the only drug to treat the disease or are the dominant competitor. Most disease education ads are followed with a branded campaign when competition emerges or when the addition of a branded campaign can help increase patient requests.


Neurocrine Biosciences is a a San Diego based company that currently gets 97% of its revenue from one product called Ingrezza, a pill that helps reduce uncontrolled eye, mouth, and body movements in people taking medications for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) is the name of this disease. Ingrezza was approved in 2017.


Neurocrine decided in early 2019 to do a disease education campaign on television and digitally. The current campaign rotates three executions. The 60-second spots do a very good job introducing the disease with an actor stating the problem and an animation that explains where on the body the symptoms might occur. The campaign is called “Talk about TD.” The campaign has the difficult job of educating patients, families, and caregivers to understand Tardive Dyskinesia. I never heard of it until I saw the campaign.


TD is a disease that affects about 500,000 people. About 58% of patients taking anti-psychotic drugs were unaware those treatments can cause TD. Thus, the need for patient education. Ingrezza is a premium priced drug at about $300 a pill retail. The dose is once a day so the revenue potential for Neurocrine is up to around $9,000 a month per patient. Of course, they get less from payers who negotiate the formulary position. Neurocrine reports revenue of about $5,700 per month per patient.


The educational challenge here is threefold. First is to identify the symptoms of TD which can affect any part of the body, and a second is to get patients to understand that these movement symptoms are something you can treat. Third is to explain how to get more information on treatments. Each of these challenges is dealt with well in the campaign. The ads are visually interesting in how the scenes shift from actor to animation of the symptoms.


Disease education on heart disease, diabetes, or cancer is common place. The TD campaign spending is relatively high for a small company. MediaRadar reports the television spending at around $19 million since the launch. An additional $2 million was spent on digital. Based on reported sales, Ingrezza has done very well. In 2019, it did about $750 million. In 2020, it looks like the drug could top $1 billion. The ad campaign seems to generate a very good ROI given the growth in 2019 and anticipated growth in 2020.


The trend towards doing DTC for limited size categories continues with Ingrezza. In the past, categories of this size would have used highly targeted patient marketing programs. What makes DTC enticing is the revenue per patient, as a $21 million disease education investment would require only a few hundred new patients to be successful. Without having any inside Ingrezza data, I think this campaign exceeded that break-even level.

Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.

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It’s On-Amgen on Health Disparities

August 13, 2020 0
Covid-19 has raised a major societal issue on health disparities in America. In many diseases, minority populations suffer more and get less treatment. This is not a new finding, but Covid-19 along with the Black Lives Matter protests on discrimination have given rise to new possibilities of addressing health disparities.

Is this the time that health disparities will be taken on? Most drug companies have some efforts related to minorities. The reality, however, is that DTC budgets do not usually allocate significant spending towards these communities. This is interesting given that traditional DTC efforts under reach these audiences, and most minority groups over index in digital, social, and mobile. I expect that will change as big Pharma realizes they are missing an opportunity to contribute to the disparities solution. It will be good business to devote more resources to minority health. A Biden victory would add to the impetus to deal with health disparities through both disease education and special branded efforts towards minority communities.

As I searched for those doing minority efforts now, I was impressed by a campaign on Multiple Myeloma done by Amgen. This digital campaign targets African-Americans with unique creative. Amgen has a drug, Kyprolis, and decided to do a separate education effort to African-American patients leveraging both disease education and branded content. This is not just showing African-Americans as part of a general vignette ad. Instead they created, along with their agency EMCAY, a dedicated branded campaign to address key needs of this important segment. The site www.multiplemyelomaitson.com is rich in African-American focused content and a dedicated place for consumers to share their stories. They also use quotes around the photos of patients, from leading African-American historical figures and authors to inspire the fight against the disease.

The campaign, “Its On”, highlights the treatments available to fight Multiple Myeloma, which includes Kyprolis. The educational component is excellent as to risk factors, an explanation of how the disease affects blood cells, discussion guides with your doctor, and patient trackers for labs and doctor visits. The “It’s On” theme covers patient (It’s on You) and drug company/caregiver (It’s on Us). Clearly the site was well-developed with relevant language that emphasizes spirituality and community. That is not something you see on general sites.

The need for special outreach is because health discussions within communities can vary greatly by race, ethnicity, and economic status. The clinical journey is at times widely different. African-Americans frequently consume health information differently and have unique health issues, such as higher prevalence of co-morbidities like diabetes and hypertension. The site encourages African-Americans to be part of the treatment process and reduce some of the gaps.

The “It’s On” campaign tries to understand and talk to these unique needs. Amgen and EMCAY recognized that special efforts are going to get better results among African-Americans than just assuming the general effort is sufficient.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Bob Ehrlich

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My Favorite Fowl

August 6, 2020 0
Hmm, Aflac or Chantix. Duck or Turkey. What a feast! I have written about the Chantix Turkey when it launched. I liked it then and like it now. I said then that I did not see the use of the turkey as a long term campaign. Apologies to Pfizer and their agency VMLY&R. They have extended the campaign with numerous new executions.

Starting with Turkey by the pool in early 2019, Chantix has added Turkey camping, sightseeing, ice skating, snowball fighting, lounging at home, at a local carnival, and at the beach. The theme has stayed the same. The Turkey represents not having to quit smoking cold turkey. 

This campaign is quite interesting and innovative for DTC. It is a far cry from patient testimonials and actor Ray Liotta, which were done earlier and also well done. I have no data on its success versus the earlier approaches. I can say with certainty that Chantix ads are memorable, likable, and unique.

“Once you land on a great strategy, you can’t shy away from it. We were certain that offering smokers a gentle alternative to cold turkey would motivate them to try quitting again. The Slow Turkey character is really just the most natural expression of that idea,” John Bollinger, Executive Creative Director at VMLY&R, told DTC Perspectives.

Use of a cute character has its limits. It really depends on the therapeutic category. It is hard to imagine using a Turkey for cancer ads. No, the cute character needs to stay within categories we do not consider immediately life threatening. Of course smoking can lead to heart disease and death, but not imminently like stage four cancer. Cute characters have worked for toe fungus, urinary incontinence, gastrointestinal ailments, and dry eye. Lamisil (Digger), Myrbetriq (walking bladder) and Xiidra (eye critter) are examples where levity was considered useful.

Chantix apparently decided that a cute character would help break through the DTC clutter of testimonial, lifestyle, vignette type ads that dominate drug advertising. I think it certainly does that well. Whether the Turkey can endure much longer is up for debate. Chantix has proven me wrong that the Turkey can be extended to numerous situations. Clearly in other categories, characters have lasted for years and have not shown any viewer fatigue. The Geico Gecko and Aflac Duck have had staying power.

Chantix has the benefit of a relatively simple selling message. You can stop smoking over time with Chantix. No need to go through the withdrawal going cold turkey. With that simple message, Chantix can focus on a memorable creative device. Many drug ads have so much information to convey that they need to be more straightforward in their presentation and use real patients or doctors, or actor portrayed patients or doctors, to recite multiple points. Chantix had the luxury of being able to focus on stopping power since the message can be nicely conveyed through the voice over.

What is very interesting about the campaign is the lack of print ads. The campaign is over 90% television with the rest digital. I would think the Turkey would make a nice visual in full page ads. That said, Chantix knows what works and has their reasons to eschew print for television. Good job Pfizer and VMLY&R for trying something very unique among DTC ads that have a tendency to look the same.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Bob Ehrlich

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Xiidra and Their Critter

July 29, 2020 0
Sometimes an Rx Drug is also competing with many OTC alternatives. In that case, their DTC ad frequently is more OTC-like than most typical DTC ads. Xiidra is a perfect example of the near OTC ad. It treats dry eye and is the only FDA approved treatment specifically indicated for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. Other approved drugs are indicated to increase tear production which I assume may also have the effect of reducing dry eye signs and symptoms. Restasis is the most well known of those.

Xiidra is now part of Novartis, after its deal to buy the brand from Takeda in June 2019. Takeda acquired Shire which owned Xiidra in January 2019 but quickly divested it. Novartis decided to create a new campaign for its newly acquired brand and thus a new creative approach was born.
Their new creative uses a little devilish critter to represent the symptoms of dry eye. He sits at a console where there are controls to cause ache, grit, itch, and burn levels. He is sinister but in a humorous way. Reminiscent of the “Digger” toe fungus character which represented the disease, the Xiidra controller is meant to be memorable without overpowering the core message. 

You would not ever use these characters for life saving or life altering drugs, such as cancer, as even a little humor would not be appropriate. In cases where the conditions are annoying but not life threatening however, the use of disease representative characters is fine. People with toe fungus and dry eye are not laughing about their conditions, but can still accept ads that are lighter in tone. 

The Shire launch campaign for Xiidra was very different from the latest Novartis execution. It was an animation of two balls representing the eyes on a track and a play on the double “i” letter in the name. A voice over announcer described the symptoms and Xiidra treatment. The branded campaign was launched after the much publicized Jennifer Aniston eye-love disease education campaign.

I assume Xiidra under new ownership decided that to compete with all the OTCs, they needed to get a more attention getting device and the critter was born. Their web site also features the critter on the landing page. I also like the use of the critter in print where so many DTC ads are similar with headshots of patients. The critter in the print ad is an attention grabbing visual enhancement. It looks like it is being used only for physician publications to date but I am sure it will appear in consumer publications soon.

Does the use of critter diminish the efficacy message or create negative reactions from potential users? That is unlikely given the nature of the disease being annoying but not life threatening. Patients have a sense of humor, too, and creating a memorable character helps Xiidra get attention in a category that is underdeveloped in the Rx arena.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Bob Ehrlich

Guest Columnist

Patient Experience Outlook 2020 – Trends and Tips

July 28, 2020 0

The patient experience at the point of care is rapidly changing. Today, medical groups continue to implement more consumer-centric workflows and digital engagement platforms to manage operational, clinical and financial processes. While the COVID-19 outbreak accelerated the adoption of these tools among providers, it was not the initial catalyst. Prior to the pandemic, many healthcare providers had already begun to adopt digital engagement tools to manage operational, clinical and financial processes. Phreesia’s patient intake platform was designed to support these trends, which has allowed us to quickly adapt to the current industry environment and to deliver valuable applications to our provider network and the broader market. We recognized the urgent need for intake products that could support telehealth visits, screen for COVID-19 risks and minimize contact during in-person visits and shifted our efforts to helping medical groups stay safe, stay open and continue to see patients. As we navigate a new normal in a post-COVID-19 world, we believe digital engagement tools will become even more critical to ensuring that the POC stays relevant to Life Sciences manufacturers and healthcare marketers.    

The evolution of the patient experience during COVID-19 has brought POC marketing to a tipping point. Today, amid tremendous disruption to the U.S. economy and healthcare industry, marketers are questioning whether the POC is still an effective environment to engage with patients. The answer is yes, but to be effective, healthcare marketers must adopt new standards for success that consider the realities of a post-COVID-19 environment and how patients and staff are adjusting to a different kind of intake experience.

Below are five important changes that we believe the POC marketing industry must address:

  1. The POC is no longer tied to physical locations—it’s wherever patients choose to engage with their providers and seek care
  2. In-person visit volumes are fluctuating and have created tremendous uncertainty for advertising exposure and impression volume, making one-to-one engagement tactics more valuable
  3. Increased provider sensitivity to shared surfaces will decrease the effectiveness of many traditional marketing tactics  
  4. Patients are more receptive to personalized content that’s tailored to their individual health needs
  5. Disruptions in patients’ access to care has created a greater need for support programs

The POC was moving beyond the walls of the physician’s office well before 2020, but COVID-19 has led to specific workflow changes that are likely to become the norm and as a result, will impact the future of POC marketing. Medical offices have implemented contactless, or “zero-contact” workflows to help minimize exposure and reduce contact between patients and staff. Many of our clients have eliminated the waiting room by asking patients to wait in their cars when they arrive for their appointment and to check in using their mobile devices. They’re also removing shared surface spaces and assigning the majority of their non-provider staff to remote work. Telehealth has also brought significant change to POC marketing. Prior to COVID-19, the telehealth market was dominated by specialty services offered through employee benefits plans. But as healthcare organizations look for ways to provide care and limit contact between patients and staff, a growing number of them are offering virtual visits.  The result of these operational changes, both contactless workflows and telehealth, is a more personalized intake experience that relies on patients using their mobile devices to engage with providers outside of the traditional office setting.

Even as medical groups rebuild their appointment schedules and patients begin to return to their providers’ offices, it’s clear that the overall the nature of in-person visits, including opportunities to engage with patients during those sessions, has changed. As more providers adopt telehealth and zero-contact workflows, we’ll need to find new ways to measure impression volumes that were traditionally based on the in-person visit. We can no longer rely on patients’ idly reviewing screens, thumbing through magazines or picking up brochures and pamphlets in the waiting room. We’ll need to deliver targeted, one-to-one engagements to patients’ mobile device, while also ensuring that the content is restricted for their personal use only.

In addition to facing a new intake experience, patents today are inundated with new information about their health. As COVID-19 guidance and recommendations continue to evolve and patients navigate through a constant stream information, medical marketing must be personalized to patients’ specific health interests and concerns. Those solutions that are tied to office operations, rather than a specific office location, will stand out. Healthcare marketers can leverage self-service digital platforms, such as patient intake software, to engage with patients about their health. At the same time, the one-on-one nature of these personalized engagements have a far greater chance of catching patients’ attention. The point-of-care offers us an opportunity to reach patients at a critical point along their healthcare journey—the moment when they are most attentive to their health concerns and just before they speak with their provider about those needs.

COVID-19 also caused a tremendous disruption to patients’ access to care. The initial outbreak forced many medical offices to close or to reduce operations, delaying care for hundreds of thousands of patients. Sadly, it also exacerbated social determinants for many patients, including employment, health insurance and education. Today’s patients need more than just information about new therapies, they need to learn about diseases and to understand the importance of resuming treatment protocols that may have been interrupted, such as vaccine schedules, infusions, preventive health screenings and diagnostic testing. We also need to ensure they’re aware of the numerous patient support programs available from life sciences manufacturers. These programs can be invaluable in helping patients gain access to and stay on therapy, yet fewer than one in five patients are aware they exist. Increasing visibility of these programs is critical for improving patient adherence, as well as to ensure that qualifying patients can access the right therapies to achieve their health goals.

As we enter a new media planning season, healthcare marketers and life sciences manufacturers need more detail and strategic insight into how the POC can become an integral part of their digital and mobile strategy. Patient utilization data demonstrates the value of mobile and how it enables provider to deliver safe care via zero-contact workflows and telehealth services. We must also personalize content and create directed, one-to-one engagements to cut through the noise and influx of health information aimed at patients to address their specific needs and priorities. Finally, we should incorporate disease education and patient support programs into digital engagement campaigns when they can improve health outcomes for target patient populations. As the patient experience becomes increasingly mediated by the converging forces of digital adaptation, patient centricity and pandemic response, we must find a way to align our digital engagement strategies at the point of care to every patient’s needs.  

Click here to learn more about Phreesia’s digital engagement solutions.

David Linetsky

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Ogilvy Health Continues Cancer Education with #EverydayMatters

July 28, 2020 0

In a follow up conversation with DTC Perspectives this summer, Sherry Novembre and Amy Graham shared how Ogilvy Health’s #EverydayMatters cancer awareness campaign continues to expand and reach audiences, as well as how COVID-19 has impacted the agency’s efforts.

The #EverydayMatters campaign was launched by Ogilvy Health in February of this year, kicking off a year-long campaign to “make an impact on cancer.” Their spring and summer efforts have continued, centering on colorectal cancer in March. They developed and released videos targeting all ages, not just older adults, to educate and encourage screenings. “Colorectal cancer is on the rise in those under age 50”, with 1 in 10 being diagnosed before the age of 50, stated one of their videos. An additional video included an experience view of a colonoscopy as Group Copy Supervisor, Bryan Minogue, “documented his cancer screening journey to show the ease and importance of getting checked early.” Novembre shared that the social media promotion of the #EverydayMatters campaign has made more than 50,000 impressions since its launch on World Cancer Day 2020. The team is also continuing to pursue partnerships where appropriate, such as teaming up with advocates for National Cancer Survivors Day on June 7th. Efforts honored survivors, including a tribute video for survivors and loved ones who serve as beacons of hope, as well as providing continual support and needed information to maintain their healthy journeys.

Amid #EverydayMatters campaign endeavors, the global COVID-19 pandemic arose. As “stay at home” and other safety orders were issued by governments, the agency team also began looking into the impacts coronavirus was having on cancer patients. Graham, citing research from the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science shared via Medscape, stated that an estimated “80,000-plus diagnoses of five common cancers in the United States are projected to be missed or delayed during the 3-month period of early March to early June because of COVID-19 disruptions to healthcare.” Additionally, normal treatment routines may have been interrupted for patients. Already a vulnerable population group, patients now were finding themselves challenged in new ways with regards to managing their healthcare. The Ogilvy Health team knew that their mission was more important than ever and has remained steadfast in their commitment to continue creating awareness, sharing knowledge and education, and providing support to the oncology community wherever it has been needed.

To comply with government safety orders during the pandemic, the team, as with all those now working remotely, has had to make some adjustments across their practices and procedures. However, even without a studio and despite the fact that all collaborations must be done virtually, they still came together to develop content and videos to support the #EverydayMatters cause. Members of the Ogilvy Health team that were not necessarily a part of the agency’s oncology projects volunteered to participate in the efforts as so many have “a personal stake in it,” noted Sherry. Team members came together in a truly collective effort to address several serious and timely issues:

  • A COVID-19 Impacts on Cancer video was created to educate and support patients.
  • A unique impact survey on HCP and cancer patients as related to COVID-19 was conducted to better understand and address the challenges the groups are currently facing.
  • A tribute video to acknowledge and thank those working in the oncology community during the pandemic was also produced.

According to Graham, when looking to the future of this program, based on their research and learnings they will continue to explore timely topics that enable better conversations and care for people living with cancer. Future topics may include ways to improve patient use of their Electronic Health Records, and cancer care inequality awareness. 

While some projects may launch in 2021 instead of 2020 now due to COVID-19 delays, long-term and global plans are still very much in play. One such venture is through content sharing: Ogilvy Health’s global offices are picking up content that this US-based team has created so that they may share locally how and where appropriate.

Check back with us in the fall for another update on Ogilvy Health’s #EverydayMatters cancer awareness campaign.

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#ShareTheScope Spotlights Black Healthcare Needs

July 28, 2020 0

Eight healthcare marketing and media leaders turned over their social media channels to “eight organizations and influencers focused on health issues and disparities facing the Black community,” according to the news release about the social media effort. On July 22, #ShareTheScope allowed “new voices and perspectives from those who are tirelessly advocating for equity and justice in healthcare” to reach more than one million followers collectively. The initiative, spearheaded by Outcome Health, was “based on the highly successful #ShareTheMicNow … with the aim of amplifying Black voices working toward change in America’s embedded racist healthcare system and reaching an audience they previously hadn’t,” continued the news release about “sharing the stethoscope”.

With the African American population disproportionately affected by several health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, asthma, among others, Outcome Health “recognizes that economic instability, physical environment, inadequate education and lack of access to healthcare systems can perpetuate” such health issues. Matt McNally was quoted in the press release, saying: “#ShareTheScope is Outcome Health’s call to action to the industry to educate and advocate on the deeply embedded gaps in healthcare for Black families. Knowledge is power, so we decided to connect prominent Black organizations with our peers in healthcare who have a shared desire for justice to act together to collectively walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”

The #ShareTheScope social media turnover partnerships were:

  • “Outcome Health & Suzet McKinney, DrPH, MPH, CEO/Executive Director of the Illinois Medical District, the second-largest urban medical district in the United States and home to four major hospitals.
  • “Ad Council & Black Mental Wellness, which provides access to evidence-based information and resources about mental health and behavioral health to decrease mental health stigma in the Black community.
  • “PatientPoint gives its platform to GEN-H, developers of a regional health plan as a community-wide response to the critical and growing health challenges facing Greater Cincinnati and North Kentucky.
  • “Verywell Health & Black Women's Health Imperative, the only national organization dedicated solely to improving the health and wellness of our nation’s 21 million Black women and girls – physically, emotionally and financially.
  • “HealthiNation & Sean Peters, Ph.D., the founder of My Body, My Kitchen, an online resource to help with the development of the physical and mental health of persons of color.
  • “Real Talk with Dr. Offutt & Urban Health Media Project, which is teaching diverse high school from under-resourced communities how to report multimedia stories about the health and social issues affecting their communities.
  • “Shatterproof & Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, which develops and promotes practices and programs to create positive change and reduce the harmful consequences of substance use and misuse in Texas.
  • “MM&M partners with BLKHLTH, which challenges racism and its impact on Black health via its platform that educates, engages and empowers the Black community.”

“Despite the fact that healthcare in America has been a topic of debate for decades, the needs of people of color have not been given equitable consideration. The opportunity to ‘Share the ‘Scope’ with Outcome Health for education and advocacy should be a catalyst to a growing recognition of the existing health disparities suffered by Black Americans, and we trust it will encourage more people to use their voices loudly to enact meaningful, lasting change,” stated Dr. McKinney in the news release.

“#ShareTheScope fits well with our mission to mobilize and engage women and organizations to pursue greater opportunities for gender and racial justice. This is a great opportunity to educate and shift public perception about the needs of Black women’s health,” noted Linda Goler Blount, MPH, President and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative in the news release.

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Executive Orders Signed by Trump to Lower Rx Prices

July 28, 2020 0

This past Friday, July 24th, President Trump signed multiple Executive Orders to lower medication prices for patients and, as he commented during the signing, to restructure the prescription drug market in terms of pricing. The three Orders, as well as a potential fourth:

  1. “Enable Americans without access to affordable insulin and injectable epinephrine through commercial insurance or Federal programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, to purchase these pharmaceuticals from an FQHC at a price that aligns with the cost at which the FQHC acquired the medication.”
  2. Allow for: importation of certain, safe prescription drugs from other countries; re-importation of insulin products; facilitate use of individual importation waivers at authorized pharmacies in the US.
  3. Pass along drug rebates to patients so they may save at the pharmacy counter.
  4. Reduces prescription drug costs for Americans to the “lowest price available in economically comparable countries for Medicare Part B drugs.”

The fourth Order was not signed and issued; full details are still unknown. As stated in the White House's briefings statement: “Absent successful negotiations with drug company executives this Order will be implemented on August 24.” The heads of major drug companies requested a meeting with the President, which was scheduled for Tuesday, July 28th, as noted by Trump during his Executive Order signing. That meeting was reportedly canceled.

Shortly after these Orders were issued on July 24th, PhRMA CEO Stephen J. Ubl released a statement. “The research-based biopharmaceutical industry has been working around the clock to develop therapeutics and vaccines to treat and prevent COVID-19. The administration’s proposal today is a reckless distraction that impedes our ability to respond to the current pandemic – and those we could face in the future. It jeopardizes American leadership that rewards risk-taking and innovation and threatens the hope of patients who need better treatments and cures,” said Ubl as part of his response.

According to a New York Times report: “Wall Street analysts were skeptical that the orders would have much effect on drugmakers and said they could prove difficult to implement in practice. ‘We believe they are likely geared more towards deriving campaign talking points rather than producing tangible, material effects,' Brian Abrahams, a biotech analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note.”

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