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www.pharmamarketingnews.com January 2016 Vol. 15, No. 1 Pharma Marketing Network® Published by: Pharma Marketing Network 2016 New Year’s Resolutions for Pharma How to Be Less Like Martin Shkreli Author: John Mack PMN1501-02

2016 New Year's Resolutions for Pharma

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Page 1: 2016 New Year's Resolutions for Pharma

www.pharmamarketingnews.com

January 2016 Vol. 15, No. 1

Pharma Marketing Network®

Published by: Pharma Marketing Network

2016 New Year’s Resolutions for Pharma How to Be Less Like Martin Shkreli Author: John Mack

PMN1501-02

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Pharma Marketing News Vol. 15, No. 1: January 2016 Page 1

© 2016 Pharma Marketing Network. All rights reserved. PMN1501-02 Pharma Marketing News

n the one hand, 2015 was a very good year for the pharmaceutical industry and pharma marketers (read “2015 Was a Golden Year for Pharma”; http://bit.ly/pmn150101h). On

the other hand, the media and politicians have found a face for evil pharma and rising drug prices: Martin Shkreli!

Let’s look ahead to a better 2016 starting with my New Year’s Resolutions for the drug industry and especially pharmaceutical marketers. This is some-what of a tradition for me. If you’re interested in how well my 2015 resolutions fared, read “Looking Back on My 2015 New Year's Resolutions for Pharma”; http://bit.ly/2015pgresol

1: Put More Actionable Distance Between You and Martin Shkreli

The drug industry certainly is getting oodles of bad press related to the actions of Martin Shkreli who told the Wall Street Journal he had been targeted by authorities for his much-criticized drug-price hikes and over-the-top public persona. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been looking into Mr. Shkreli since 2012, though its probe became a higher priority this September after his company Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Daraprim, a drug for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.

Wolves of Pharma Street “Shkreli has become the Wolf of Pharma Street—he’s basically come to represent everything that was bad and wrong with pharma,” said Art Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University, as quoted in a Chicago Tribune article. And while Shkreli may be reviled, said Caplan, “he’s not doing anything in terms of prices that other companies haven’t done” (see “Five Habits, Traits, Whatever! of ‘Real’ Pharma Leaders”; right).

Shkreli said he was doing nothing more than increasing shareholder value, a sentiment recently expressed by Pfizer CEO Ian Read, a REAL wolf of “Pharma Street,” who said “we’ve got to talk about imperatives”; i.e., return on capital. Other drug company CEOs agree.

O Five Habits, Traits, Whatever! of "Real" Pharma Leaders

Reprinted from World of DTC Marketing (http://sco.lt/74JTJR)

“Forbes, in a recent editorial, said “Pharma Needs A Leader In 2016” and I couldn’t agree more,” says blogger Rich Meyer, “but let’s be honest here, most pharma CEOs are NOT leaders but rather high paid executives who bow to investor needs and demands.” What would Meyer like to see in a pharma leader? • No pharma CEO should take a salary

above $5M. It’s not about the title and perks, it’s about actually leading people to help others who need help.

• CEOs should mandate that no patient will be left behind because they can’t afford a product they market. If someone makes $100K per year, for example, they may not be able to afford a treatment for MS that costs $17K every other month if their insurer won’t cover it.

• Win over the rank and file and recognize pirates and innovators. When I received my President’s and Marketing Excel award at Lilly I received them from top executives and also received an email thanking me for my work. That was like a shot of corporate B12.

• Hold Wall Street at bay. Make them understand that instant gratification is rare within drug development. Remem-ber these are the same analysts that help cause the huge financial meltdown.

• Be human. Stop with the corporate speak. Talk to us like people with a PR talking points scorecard.

Rich left out one requirement that applies to American pharma CEOs: Perhaps they should be “natural born” U.S. citizens as is required to be U.S. president. Maybe that would prevent companies like Pfizer giving up their American citizenship to evade U.S. taxes!

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Drug executives say that the industry needs to do a better job explaining the economics of the industry to the broader public. In other words, now that Shkreli has everyone’s attention, it’s time for drug companies to tell a new story—to “flip the Shkreli narrative.”

Many CEOs, for example, fall back on the tried-and-true “cost of innovation” argument. “The guy who shall remain nameless does not recognize the added value of research and innovation, and is not representative of Big Pharma as a whole,” said Habib Dable, Bayer’s new president of U.S. pharmaceuticals (see http://sco.lt/5986wT).

Frankly, I’m getting tired of it all. Shkreli had his 15 minutes of fame. Let’s move on. It’s time for the pharma industry to get its 15 minutes of fame by doing something substantial to distance itself from the likes of Shrkreli.

Actions Needed, Not Just Words But it’s not enough to just tell a “different story.” The mainstream drug industry (“Big Pharma”) cannot distance itself from “wolves” like Shkreli merely through better corporate communications as suggested recently by John Higginson, head of corporate communications at ICG, a PR agency.

“So often [communications professionals within pharma companies] are held back by CEOs and boards who treat their communications with the same risk aversion as they take to running the rest of their business,” said Higginson. “It is time to let those who are willing and able to speak up for the industry to do so. The time to stick heads above the parapet is now” (http://sco.lt/8SVCb3).

Higginson says pharma should counteract the public perception that the industry puts profits before patients. But then he says this message is blocked by CEO & board resistance. That resistance comes from the profit-motive heart of the drug industry, which is precisely where Martin Shkreli exists. Shkreli claimed that Delaware corporate rules require that he maximize profits. Although there is no such rule, it’s what CEOs as paid to do.

The industry also cannot alter public opinion using 140 characters or less on Twitter such as in this PhRMA tweet: “.@TuringPharma does not represent the values of @PhRMA member companies.”

In any case, actions, not words are needed.

Orphan drugs are big these days thanks in part to the exploitation of loopholes in the Orphan Drug Act (see “Otsuka [a PhRMA member company] to FDA: No Thanks... Orphan Status for Abilify is More Profitable. Generics Can Pound Sand!”; http://sco.lt/5n2l6n). How about supporting the closing of that loophole?

Of course, the best action pharma can take is to put the brakes on ever-increasing drug price hikes (see http://sco.lt/7RkgOP and http://sco.lt/5JLdE9). Unless that is a priority, Shkreli will continue to be the “bad” drug industry poster boy.

2: Cut Down on the Use of Buzzwords

Pharma marketers cannot communicate with each other without using “buzzwords.” But it may be a good idea to cut back a bit as some critics have suggested that buzzwords alienate patients and physicians (see, for example, “Do Marketing Buzzwords Affect Pharma's Reputation Among Patients & Physicians?”; http://bit.ly/1Qf3N76).

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According to results of a Pharma Marketing News reader survey (http://bit.ly/pmn140401h), even in-dustry insiders question the use of buzzwords. “We on the commercial side of the business have an unhealthy obsession with ‘buzzwords’,” said Timothy White, Senior Director & Head of Global Customer Interaction Management at Lundbeck.

CASE STUDY #1: “Key Opinion Leader”

One buzzword that pharma could do without is “Key Opinion Leader” (KOL). You can find the definition of that term here: http://bit.ly/1U0tQ1V

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of physicians deemed to be genuine medical experts believe the pharmaceutical industry should replace the term KOL. That was one of the insights gleaned from an international online survey presented at the Medical Affairs Leaders Forum in Berlin, in February, 2015 (read “A KOL By Any Other Name”; http://bit.ly/pmn140303h).

CASE STUDY #2: Patient-Centricity

Another buzzword that pharma marketers are throwing about much too frequently is “patient centricity.” The problem is there is no good definition of the term and too many marketers use it to focus on meeting the brand’s needs to sell more product.

Selling products is the main goal of patient-centricity according to Richie Etwaru, IMS Health. “By listening to customers,” said Etwaru, “and working to understand the good, bad and ugly parts of the patient experience, life-sciences companies can become patient-centric and move from ‘dislike’ to ‘like.’ Only then will they buy more of our products and services” (http://sco.lt/5e6HKb).

Zoe Dunn—one of the Digitally Savvy Women in Pharma, http://bit.ly/pmn150103h—said marketers will “continue to fool [themselves] that [they] are delivering what the patient needs. We need clarity around our focus and better under-standing of patient needs, even when they diverge from what we are tasked to deliver. We need creativity and innovation to bridge the gap between what pharma wants to achieve and the needs of the patients it serves” (http://sco.lt/6RRZcP).

This underscores why pharma may be taking the wrong approach to patient-centricity, IMO. As Dunn has implied in her comments, if you are into patient-centricity to sell more products, you’re moving in the wrong direction and will end up disappointed.

Beyond Selling Pills Meanwhile, here are some ways pharma can solicit patient input and be more patient-centric:

• Input on clinical trials to deliver against the real-world setting (R&D)

• Supporting with communication around clinical trial recruitment (R&D / communications)

• Advising on unmet needs / real-world patient challenges to help with product positioning (marketing)

• Advising on supportive solutions needed beyond medicines (marketing / digital marketing)

• Helping communicate key challenges at the disease area level, above the brand (patient advocacy / communications)

• Helping identify novel commercial partners to work with (business development / strategy)

• Helping define the successful high-level strategy for pharma (C-level)

#3: Get Rid of Those Silly Drug Ad “Mascots!”

This is a follow-on to my 2015 Resolution #3; i.e., If you can’t break the TV Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) over-spending habit, at least stop broadcasting commercials that embarrass the industry as a whole.

At that time I cited the new Viagra ads as an ex-ample of embarrassing DTC. The American public has now grown immune to those ads (read “Only 10% of Americans Would Pay Attention to Sexy Online Ads”; http://sco.lt/7xuF29) and the battle is lost as far as getting them off the air—even if a former Pfizer executive calls for it (for more on

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that, read “New Viagra TV Ad Should Be Dropped, Says Former Pfizer Executive”; http://sco.lt/8rISNF).

Gallery of Silly Mascots But perhaps more embarrassing are the TV DTC ads that feature characters like Xifaxan's “Bubble Guy” who is supposed to look like your intestines but has been compared to a dinosaur and Jar Jar Banks from Star Wars. What could be more embarrassing than that? How about the first ever DTC ad—which may or may not have run on TV—that mentioned the “V” word? Read “Pfizer's ‘Humorous’ Menopause Ad” (http://bit.ly/menovword).

See my Gallery of Drug Advertising Mascots for a comprehensive list of drug ad mascots over the years: http://bit.ly/mascotgallery

#4: Stop Inventing Phony “Real Medical Conditions” like Binge Eating Disorder (B.E.D.)

In February, 2015, Shire solicited tennis celebrity Monica Seles, to help them hawk, er... market, a new indication for Vyvanse: Binge Eating Disorder or B.E.D. (http://bit.ly/selesbinge).

According to Seles & Shire on the BingeEating-Disorder.com website: “Binge Eating Disorder (B.E.D.) is not just overeating. It is a real medical condition [my emphasis] that was formally recog-nized in 2013. B.E.D. is the most common eating disorder among US adults.”

Although Shire’s website has lots of statistics about B.E.D., it does not provide the sources for these statistics. For example, Shire says B.E.D. affects 2.8 million people in the U.S. based on a national survey. But Shire does not say who did the survey or link to the source so we can see if it was based on real science or just marketing hocus pocus. I suspect the latter.

eHealth Code of Ethics I urge the drug industry to follow the eHealth Code of Ethics (http://www.jmir.org/2000/2/e9/), which I helped create back in 2000. According to the Code, individuals need to be able to judge for themselves the quality of the health information they find on the Internet. Sites should disclose what sources the site or content provider has used, with references or links to those sources.

#5: Be More (a Lot More) Transparent

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), which represents the pharmaceutical industry operating in Europe, has said: “The pharmaceutical industry recognises that it has a responsibility to show leadership in advancing responsible transparency” (http://transparency.efpia.eu).

Nice words, but the drug industry has a long way to go to achieve “responsible” transparency and show leadership in advancing that goal. For example, many interested parties—including patient groups—

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have called for the drug industry to be more trans-parent with regard to reporting clinical trial data (read, for example, “A Broken Covenant With Patients”; http://sco.lt/5phr7p).

Publish All Clinical Trial Results Lack of transparency about negative clinical trial data is a manifestation of the “dark side” of pharma. Dr. Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Pharma, has written and lectured extensively about this (see “Bad, Devalued, Distrusted & Defensive Pharma”; http://bit.ly/W1pga5 and “Results of Over 500 Clinical Trials Each Year Go Undisclosed to Public”; http://sco.lt/7eA89p). There are also calls for transparency regarding how drug companies set drug prices (read “Transparency Hits a Wall When It Comes to Drug Pricing”; http://sco.lt/7jfBo1).

Reveal Celebrity Payments Here’s another suggestion for how the drug industry can be more transparent: Be transparent in your dealings with celebrities—including patient blogger celebrities. Given the power of celebrities and patient bloggers to influence people, pharma-ceutical companies should disclose the details of payments made to celebrities just as they now are required to do for physician payments. Read more about that here: “Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues of Transparency”; http://bit.ly/1J5ZdoA

See my Drug Advertising Celebrities SlideShare presentation for a comprehensive list of celebrities who have appeared in drug ads over the years: http://bit.ly/drugcelebs

#6: Increase the Quality (Not Quantity) of mHealth Apps

The main of hurdle facing pharma when designing and developing patient and physician mHealth apps that are effective at improving health outcomes is winning over physician prescribers who can recom-mend the apps to their patients.

Lack of evidence is just one of the hurdles to wide-spread provider prescribing of mHealth apps. Other hurdles include reimbursement challenges, limited integration with physician office systems, gaps in patient access, and, last but not least, data security and privacy issues.

“The fast-paced growth of the healthcare app market has outpaced the ability to develop oversight and guidance for accuracy of clinical content contained in

Patient Centricity, Transparency, & Pharma's Reputation

Patient-Centricity and Transparency are two “buzzwords” popular in the pharmaceutical industry these days.

This article discusses real world examples of patient-centricity in pharmaceutical marketing and the need for more transparency in how pharmaceutical companies partner with patients online.

Topics (partial list): • Patient Centricity and Profitability • Defining Patient Centricity • Sanofi’s 3 Pillars of Patient Centricity • Transparency: Good in Theory, But Not in

Practice • Can Big Data Analytics Help Pharma

Deliver "Patient-Centric" Services? Download the full article (PDF file) here: http://bit.ly/pmn140203

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mHealth apps,” concludes a report by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics (read “The Overwhelming Choices, Limited Proven Efficacy, & Security Issues of mHealth Apps”; http://sco.lt/5wmMCn).

One way for the pharmaceutical industry to over-come these hurdles is to emulate Bayer Health, MSD, Johnson and Johnson, and other drug com-panies and collaborate with technology startups (read, for example, “MSD UK Joins #Pharma Digital Accelerator Club”; http://sco.lt/5BLnyz).

According to the recently published “Digital Doctor Report 2015” produced by Ipsos, “doctors have a greater level of distrust of pharma compared to technology companies.” Specifically, 40% of Euro-pean physicians surveyed say they don’t trust applications developed by pharma. In contrast, only a quarter of physicians express the same sentiments toward technology firms (read “#Pharma Should Not Be Afraid to Develop Digital Apps to Improve Health Outcomes”; http://sco.lt/4jxyhV).

So, not only can pharma produce better mHealth apps by teaming up with technology companies, they may also increase physician trust in the apps they develop, which will lead to more physicians recom-mending apps to patients to improve outcomes. Of course, those apps should be tested for efficacy just like drugs are tested for efficacy—via controlled clinical trials (http://sco.lt/5CSwiX).

#7: Invite Pharmaguy Into Your Tent

Pharmaguy is a true drug industry “aficionado” and has been invited “inside the tent” at many pharma companies to present to marketing and digital teams. These companies include Sanofi, Bayer, Roche (Italy), Celgene, and others.

Recently, for example, Pharmaguy presented at Bayer Pharma's STEM4Health Master Class Meetup in Berlin on 23 September 2015. You can access the presentation here: “Mastering Mobile Social Media to Improve Health Outcomes”; http://bit.ly/1NbK9De

It's no surprise that social media teams from two of these companies received the Pharmaguy Pioneer Award; http://bit.ly/PGpioneer

That’s not to say you also will receive an award if you invite Pharmaguy to speak to your team. But you will get a chance to be interviewed by Pharmaguy and receive at least one complimentary, autographed copy of his book Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy, which makes the case for a fundamentally new approach to healthcare communication; one that mobilizes patients, healthcare professionals and uses new media to enable gathering, sharing and communication of information to achieve patient-centricity and provide better value for both organizations (in terms of profit) and patients (in terms of better service and improved health).

Get a 35% discount off the usual price! Use code

G15JNY35 when ordering here: http://bit.ly/gowerSMbook

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