Add King Pharmaceuticals to the list of drug companies shedding staff. The specialty drug manufacturer announced on Tuesday that it was eliminating 760 jobs-totaling 22 percent of its workforce. 

The cuts come two weeks after a US District Court judge invalidated two of the three patents on King’s muscle relaxant Skelaxin (metaxalone). (King said it would appeal the decision.) At least three companies are planning to market generic versions of the drug in the near future, including King, which has a joint venture with Corepharma.

Of the positions being eliminated, 240 are related to redundancies brought on by the purchase of Alpharma late last year, another 380 are sales reps, and the rest are corporate positions. That leaves King with just 720 reps to sell its five prescription drugs. 

The restructuring plan will cost the company up to $55 million in the first half of 2009. No word on how much King expects to save, but the company promised to explain more during its fourth quarter report presentation on February 26.  


  On a bright note, King revealed positive Phase III results from a 12-month study of Embeda (morphine/sequestered naltrexone)-the abuse-resistant pain drug it acquired through the Alpharma purchase. 

“This clinical study showed that Embeda continued to effectively decrease pain over a period of 12 months in chronic pain patients,” stated Eric Carter, chief science officer of King Pharmaceuticals. “These results, along with earlier safety and efficacy findings, demonstrate that Embeda has the potential to be one of the first formulations designed to deter common methods of misuse and abuse, while safely and effectively treating patients with chronic pain.” The drug combines time-release morphine with a narcotic antagonist formulated so it is only released if the drug is crushed or chewed-common ways to abuse time-release pain meds.

Embeda was a sticking point during the King/Alpharma negotiations. Alpharma CEO Dean J. Mitchell 

 King’s earlier proposals claiming that King downplayed potential earnings for Embeda. In the end, King 

Articles

News Analysis

Facing patent expiry for one of its top drugs and an overabundance of sales staff due to recent acquisitions, King announced that it would eliminate 760 jobs.

King Pharma Purges 22 Percent of its Workforce

After helping launch one of Pfizer’s biggest lifestyle drugs since Viagra, the iconic tortoise and hare might be getting sent to pasture. 

, on Friday, reported that Pfizer has switched gears and dropped McCann Humancare as the agency of record for the smoking cessation treatment, rep[lacing it with the New York-based independent agency McGarryBowen. 

McCann’s much-lauded print and television campaign -whichcompared the plight of a smoker trying to quit to that of the tortoise attempting to outpace the hare in the children’s fable-will continue to run through the first quarter of 2009, according to Pfizer.

“In many communications, smokers are vilified and made second-class citizens,” McCann executive creative director BJ Kaplan told 

 last year. “Part of this campaign is to praise quitters for the attempts they are taking and to encourage them to quit.”

McCann will continue to serve as agency of record for a number of other Pfizer properties including the popular Viva Viagra campaign. Pfizer told 

 on Tuesday that the decision to change agencies for Chantix was due to a number of creative concepts brought to the table by McGarryBowen.

“The goal of the Tortoise and Hare campaign, executed by McCann, is to encourage smokers to set realistic expectations when they try to quit,” Pfizer spokesperson Sally Beatty told 

. “Having said that, quitting smoking is very difficult. We believe multiple waves of messages are needed to help smokers make the decision to try to quit. As the needs of the Chantix brand continue to evolve, McGarryBowen presented us with innovative ideas that we feel best meet the needs of the brand at this time.”


  Add the tortoise and the hare to the list of critters no longer working for pharma. It’s hard not to notice the recent disappearance of some of the quirky characters that permeated pharma ads for the past few years. 

The infamous beaver and Abe Lincoln characters that helped 

 Takeda’s sleep aid Rozerem seem to have vanished. The Rozerem home page is currently being upgraded and the surreal imagery has been replaced with a portrait of a middle-aged woman. Takeda could not be reached for a comment, but it looks like the dynamic duo might be gone.

Peter Zamiska, chief creative office at Ferguson told 

 that sometimes quirky can go too far. “My clients have never been entirely comfortable with the cartoonish or quirky advertising in my experience, but they’re always looking for that iconic character,” Zamiska said. “These are two totally different things in their minds. They generally shy away from ‘eccentric’ work in my opinion.”

However, some iconic characters like the Nasonex bee and the Lunesta moth are still flying high, even if they’ve been toned down a bit over the years. 

“As industry becomes more mature, the communication becomes more mature,” said Russ Messner, head of BBDO New York’s healthcare sector. “DTC is relatively young in the US, and I think we went through our adolescent years where it was about standing out in edgy and interesting ways. What our industry has come to realize is that in order to meet clients’ needs the communications have to become more mature.”

“I don’t know if it’s as much as deliberate decision [to move away from cartoon characters], but I think it’s more about how the market is responding differently to different kinds of messages,” said Loreen Babcock of Unit 7. “We haven’t seen a change toward people wanting to take those concepts off the table in our kind of work.”

Pfizer switched agencies for its popular smoking cessation drug Chantix. While the company is tight lipped about the campaign's new direction, it looks like this may be the end of the tortoise and hare. Does this signal an end to the use of critters in pharma ads?

Pharmaceutical Executive-02-05-2009

King Pharma Purges 22 Percent of its Workforce

Chantix Bounced From McCann to McGarry Bowen