The Wall Street Journal reports that patient support groups are criticizing GlaxoSmithKline over drug ads that they say attempt to scare patients away from trying other, newer drugs.
One ad's image is sharks in the water, with the message: "Don't take a chance -- stick with the HIV medicine that's working for you."
Another - for Glaxo's drug Lexiva - tells patients to ask their doctor, "Will the HIV medicine make my skin or eyes turn yellow?" That side effect has been reported with other HIV drugs.
Bristol-Myers Squibb has an ad showing a toilet - with the text, "Ask your doctor if there are HIV medications with a low risk of diarrhea." Of course BMS thinks it has such a drug.
The WSJ reports:
Such comparison ads are common elsewhere. But the pharmaceutical industry traditionally sold HIV drugs with images of hope and by explaining the benefits of their treatments. The tough new tack has some patient groups unsettled, saying it could scare off patients.A development fueling the sharp-elbows advertising: The market for HIV medicines has grown crowded, and companies want to protect their market share.
In the early days of HIV therapies, the drug companies came to learn of the incredible leverage patient advocacy groups. They found ways to partner with and support these influentials. They grew together in a symbiotic relationship, as the drugs help to strengthen and save so many HIV patients from rapid decline.
Today's market is far different. The drug companies have established their brands in the HIV community and are now facing competition on one area that is difficult to defend - not efficacy, but adverse events. And that's where marketing's sharp elbows come into play.
Just like DTC advertising had its detractors for many years in the '90s, so too does negative advertising versus the competition. The only thing is that it can be very effective.
There are plenty of groups who will complain about the negative advertising we will see in the presidential race. But in the end, it may spell the difference between winning and losing.
Frank Hone
Author - Why Healthcare Matters
While other therapeutic areas generally do not benefit "tremendously" from second-generation drugs (see Antihypertensives, Antiulcerants, etc.), HIV is indeed an exception, with expectedly high mutation rates that lead to "virological failure"--essentially the erosion of an HIV drug's efficacy in controlling the virus. AIDS patients often have to cycle through newer drugs when starter drugs fail. Scare tactics on the adoption of newer HIV drugs, in particular, would have a damaging impact on physicians' ability to aggressively control HIV in patients.