One of Pfizer’s new vaccine TV commercials never mentions its vaccine brand Comirnaty. In fact, it doesn’t mention vaccines or Covid-19 at all and doesn’t show people wearing masks or social distancing. Yet it’s clear the ad is talking about the pharma’s Covid-19 vaccines.
The ad’s voiceover talks about the unremarkable moments and routines that matter, like getting a coffee refill at a diner or Sunday grocery shopping. The images shift from those everyday moments to a scientists and purple lidded glass vials spinning off a production line and being packed into freezers.
The sign-off? ‘At Pfizer, protecting the regular routine in every day, drives us to reach for exceptional. Working to impact hundreds of millions of lives young and old, it’s what we call ‘the pursuit of normal.”
A second video ad is more overt, featuring NBA Brooklyn Nets player Bruce Brown who talks about how he’ll do ‘literally anything the team needs me to do out there on the floor. So I really can’t miss any games. When the vaccines became available, there was no doubt I was getting vaccinated. I was super excited because my life is basketball.’
One of the final screens shows the words ‘Don’t miss your shot,’ followed by a screen showing the Nets’, Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s logos. Similar to the other ad, the basketball ad is tagged ‘All rights reserved. December 2021.’
Pfizer declined to comment about the new ad, citing that it does not discuss its marketing strategies. However, the ads are copyrighted Dec. 2021 and a vaccine campaign had been expected before the end of the year.
According to media reports, Pfizer hired ad agency Ogilvy to do vaccine advertising shortly after the shot was approved by the FDA in August. The new commercial however is tagged on iSpot.tv as created by a different ad agency, Young & Rubicam. Pfizer has used both Ogilvy and VMLY&R for its marketing and advertising campaigns in the past.
No matter the agency, the timing of vaccine advertising syncs with FDA guidelines that wouldn’t allow Pfizer to advertise before being officially approved.
This summer Pfizer ramped up its Covid-19 vaccine sales force, the Financial Times reported, and posted advertising on LinkedIn to find a senior director to lead the US launch as well as a senior manager for Covid consumer marketing. The job listing now reads as ‘no longer accepting applications.’
One TV ad first aired last Sunday, and so far has run more than 300 times, according to data from real-time TV ad tracker iSpot.tv.
Pfizer expects Comirnaty sales of more than $36 billion in 2021. It forecasted additional sales of $29 billion in 2022 in November, based on 1.7 billion doses sold — although it has the capacity to produce 4 billion. It’s already in the process of signing more deals with more countries for 2022.
Some may wonder with sales like that why even bother marketing. It may seem like a waste of resources, and that may be true for now when Pfizer is the only FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine. However, there are at least seven more emergency use vaccines authorized around the world that are coming for Pfizer’s market share, especially in light of emerging evidence that booster will be needed for some time.
Moderna’s Spikevax, J&J’s Janssen vaccine, Novovax’s Nuvaxovid/Covovax, AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria and Sanofi and GSK’s vaccine will all be competing to become the booster of choice around the world. When and if those vaccines are fully approved in the US, expect more marketing and advertising as the pharma companies jockey for position.
And that means not just consumer awareness or even DTC ads, but also money spent marketing to physicians to become the Covid vaccine of choice with doctor’s offices likely delivering most future booster shots.
CALQUENCE is a registered trademark of the AstraZeneca group of companies.
At the 2021 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, blood cancer researchers from around the world gathered virtually to discuss the progress that has been made in the field of hematology. Over the past decade, that progress has been tremendous. We’ve seen not only breakthrough approaches to care, but also significant improvement upon existing novel treatments and exploring combinations within those medicines.1 These advances have transformed expectations of what a blood cancer diagnosis now means for patients. While we’ve come a long way, I believe the most exciting scientific discovery is yet to come, and that future advances will truly transform patient care.
Michel Vounatsos, Biogen CEO (Credit: World Economic Forum/Valeriano Di Domenico)
In a surprise move, Biogen announced Monday that it will cut the price of its controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm in half, slashing the cost from $56,000 to $28,000.
The sudden discount marks a sudden turnaround for the big biotech as it struggles to turn around a drug whose stuck-in-the-mud sales and political ramifications have sent the company into turmoil and triggered the ousting of its longtime chief scientist. Biogen’s leadership had resisted calls since June to reduce the price of the drug.
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Right as the new Omicron variant is poised to increase rapidly across the US, the federal government has effectively run out of the only monoclonal antibody treatment that works against it, and at least one major hospital system is now halting all mAb infusions.
Late last month, the federal government paused shipments of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir’s mAb treatment sotrovimab in order to conserve supplies of the only treatment that might work against the Omicron variant. Last week, however, HHS told Endpoints News that the move to hold back sotrovimab was unrelated to Omicron, and due to a surplus of Eli Lilly mAbs, which aren’t effective against Omicron.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) at the Capitol on Friday, Dec. 17 (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images)
Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday derailed President Biden’s trillion-dollar spending package, effectively halting the Democrats’ best chance yet to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, among a bevy of other health-related provisions tacked onto the Build Back Better Act.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, stunned by Manchin’s announcement on Fox News, said in a statement: ‘Senator Manchin claims that this change of position is related to inflation, but the think tank he often cites on Build Back Better — the Penn Wharton Budget Institute — issued a report less than 48 hours ago that noted the Build Back Better Act will have virtually no impact on inflation in the short term, and, in the long run, the policies it includes will ease inflationary pressures.’
As the new year rapidly approaches, and gyms and health food stores across America prepare for a wave of people seeking weight loss, Novo Nordisk has announced that it does not expect to meet demand for Wegovy, its prescription injectable weight-loss medication for obesity, until the second half of 2022 in the US.
The shortage comes due to manufacturing issues at a contract manufacturer that was tasked with filling syringes for the pens. The news comes just days after Novo announced that it would invest roughly $2.58 billion to expand its manufacturing hub in Kalundborg, Denmark with three new facilities and the expansion of a fourth to keep up with the success of its diabetes and obesity med semaglutide, Wegovy and Rybelsus.
The AbbVie/Alvotech debacle on a Humira biosimilar has taken yet another turn — escalating tensions between the two biotechs.
The pharma giant filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission on Friday, trying to prevent Alvotech from selling a lower cost version of AbbVie’s Humira, an anti-TNF drug that treats rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and Crohn’s disease, among other ailments.
The long wait for Novavax’s promising Covid-19 vaccine will soon be over for Europeans.
The European Medicines Agency on Monday recommended granting a conditional marketing authorization for Novavax’s shot, to be known as Nuvaxovid, to prevent Covid-19 for all those over the age of 18. And later Monday morning, the European Commission granted that authorization.
Clinical trials of the two-shot vaccine, with each jab taken three weeks apart, showed it was safe and offered strong efficacy, but the EMA warned that the vaccine has not been tested against some variants of concern like Omicron.
Tom Plitz (L) and Arthur Roach, Chord Therapeutics CEO and founder
About a year after Geneva-based Chord Therapeutics emerged from stealth to see if it could repurpose an old chemotherapy agent for rare diseases, Merck KGaA is swooping in with a buyout.
While the companies are keeping mum about the financial terms of the deal, Merck KGaA is adding Chord’s lead candidate to its neurology pipeline — a small molecule oral version of the chemotherapy drug cladribine dubbed CRD1.
Brian Culley, Lineage Cell Therapeutics CEO
In a lucrative market for ocular degeneration, Roche has long sat on a gold mine with its drug Lucentis — but the times are changing. Now, Roche will bet on a regenerative approach to eye disease with a small biotech with some very early but promising data.
Genentech will pay $50 million upfront and a potential $620 million in downstream milestones for licensing rights to Lineage Cell Therapeutics’ OpRegen program, a cell therapy that aims to regenerate healthy versions of retinal pigment epithelial cells in patients’ eyes, the companies said Monday.
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