Johnson & Johnson announced plans to cut 400 marketing and sales jobs to make up for lagging sales of its anemia drug Procrit. The cuts will be limited to the company's two biologics groups—

 and Ortho Biotech. About 150 employees will be let go from Ortho, and the division will move from its New Jersey headquarters to Centocor's offices in Horsham, PA.

Procrit came under fire last year when former J&J salespeople said the company had encouraged them to use kickbacks and other tactics to push physicians to prescribe the drug. (Their lawsuit against the company was dismissed in January.) The product has also faced new warning labels, Congressional investigations, and the claim by Representatives Pete Stark (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA) that erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs) such as Procrit do not enhance quality of life.

On Monday, Chris Molineaux, spokesperson for J&J, told 

 that the ESA market has seen a fair amount of contraction in the past year; FDA is currently reviewing the label for the future use of Procrit, sparking concern of further softening of the market.

"It's important to note that this is not only about the contraction of the market, because Centocor has a strong growth driver with 

," Molineaux said. "The drug is still delivering strong performance, and the company has two launches anticipated in the next year."

J&J also made it clear that the Ortho Biotech announcement is a consolidation of commercial operations, not a merger. "This is largely because merger refers to a top-to-bottom bringing together of two organizations," Molineaux said. "In this case, there will continue to be separate sales forces for Ortho Biotech and Centocor."

Kim Taylor—currently president of Ortho Biotech—will head the new organization.

Johnson & Johnson would not comment about drugs in the pipeline before Phase IIb, but Molineaux said that Procrit still has a very strong core business, and that the company will continue to support it. Orthro Biotech also manufactures the oncology drug Doxil and has a co-promotion agreement in the United States for Velcaid.

Articles

News Analysis

Marketers and sales reps feel the brunt of faltering Procrit sales as J&J consolidates its biologics divisions.

J&J Drops 400 in Biologics

Thursday was a big night for Merck and DDB, as the drug company and its agency took home a fistful of awards for various parts of the Gardasil campaign during the 10th Annual Pharmaceutical Advertising and Marketing Excellence Awards (PhAME) gala event at the Guggenheim Museum. Other multiple award winners included AstraZeneca and Saatchi & Saatchi. (

While awards winners ran the gamut of campaigns, the biggest change in marketing styles was the move from general awareness campaigns to ads that that focus on how consumers process information in complex disease categories. In these categories, consumers have longer periods of time to acquire information before the initial steps in seeking therapy. Merck's campaign for Gardasil, which took top television ad honors, is an example of this marketing strategy.

"I was very impressed with the depth of the campaign that Merck did with Gardasil," said Laurie Casaday, senior manager for brand corporate affairs at AZ. "They approached the campaign from all different priorities, and they did such a great job raising the awareness of HPV among teenage girls and their mothers."

From Facebook to movie theaters to print and television, Merck and DDB hit traditional as well as new media, drawing in consumers with a powerful campaign that featured young girls empowered to talk about the human papilloma virus (HPV). Since June of 2006, when Gardasil launched, there have been more than 26 million doses of the drug distributed worldwide.

"When I think about Gardasil, the entire approach is to make sure we get as many appropriate people vaccinated as possible," said David Schechter, executive director, Merck vaccines and infectious disease. "We looked at innovative and creative approaches to get to the consumers, and have them take action and talk to their healthcare professionals."


Over the years, PhAME has been quick to include award categories for new advertising methods, including online and integrated campaigns. This year was no different.

"I think the biggest change we've seen is the growing sophistication in how pharma?which doesn't have a long history in pharmaceutical advertising?has evolved to better understand consumer behavior and reflect that in the integration of better consumer marketing plans," said Tom Mangano, assistant vice president of communications and e-business at Wyeth. (Mangano has been an executive committee member of PhAME for the past five years.)

While AstraZeneca was lauded for everything from best public relations campaign to best in-office program, the company is proud of its Best Interactive Campaign award for Celebration Chain, a branded Web site that got people to make digital paper dolls in honor of loved ones with breast cancer. For every doll made, AZ donated a dollar to charity.

"In the future, we're going to see a lot more campaigns like Celebration Chain," said Denise Campbell, senior director of consumer marketing at AZ. "

As the emerging digital landscape continues to change, and we continue to live in a world with consumer-generated media, we are going to be continually working together as an industry to figure out how to make that work in a responsible manner."

Best Branded TV—Gardasil, Merck & Co., DDB New York

Best Branded Print—Gardasil, Merck & Co., DDB New York

Best Integrated Campaign—Gardasil, Merck & Co., DDB, Rapp Collins

Best Multicultural Campaign—Una Menos, Merck & Co., Prime Access

Best Relationship Marketing—Pulmicort, AstraZeneca, Saatchi & Saatchi

Best New Product Introduction—Pataday, Alcon Laboratories, Draftfcb

Best Public Relations Campaign—Us Against Athero, AstraZeneca, Edelman

Best Interactive Campaign—Celebration Chain, AstraZeneca, Digitas Health

Best Unbranded Campaign—Suboxone—Bus Shelter, Reckitt Benckiser, CommonHealth

Best Media Plan—Cymbalta, Eli Lilly and Company, Draftfcb & Greater Than One

Best In-Office/In-Pharmacy—Pulmicort, AstraZeneca, Saatchi & Saatchi Consumer Health

Public Health Award—"I Stand with Magic", Abbott, Ogilvy & Mather

Marketer of the Year—Merck 2008 2nd Place


Best Branded TV—Cymbalta, Eli Lilly, Draftfcb

Best Branded Print—Orencia, Bristol Myers Squibb, MRM Gillespie

Best Integrated Campaign—Orencia, Bristol Myers Squibb, MRM Gillespie 

Best Multi-Cultural Campaign—"I Am" Campaign, AstraZeneca, UniWorld Group

Best Relationship Marketing—Valtrex, GlaxoSmithKline, ARD Marketing & Real Age

Best New Product Introduction—Vyvanse, Shire, Cadient Group

Best Public Relations Campaign—The Many Faces of Breast Cancer, AstraZeneca, Zeno Group 

Best Interactive Campaign—APositiveLife.com, GlaxoSmithKline, imc2

Best Interactive Campaign—FluFlix Video Campaign, Novartis Vaccines, Cadient Group

Best Unbranded Ad ?Plavix "Map", Bristol Myers/Sanofi-Aventis, MRM Gillespie

Best Media Plan—"Fit Nation", AstraZeneca, Zenithmedia

Best In-Office/In-Pharmacy—"Right Place, Right Time", Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Ogilvy

Public Health Award—Reyataz Photo Contest, Bristol Myers Squibb, Euro RSCG

Marketer of the Year—AstraZeneca 2008 3rd Place


Best Branded TV—Orencia, Bristol Myers Squibb, MRM Gillespie

Best Branded Print—Plavix, Sanofi-Aventis/Bristol Myers, Saatchi & Saatchi Consumer Health

Best Unbranded Ad—"I Stand With Magic", Abbott, Ogilvy & Mather

Best In-Office/In-Pharmacy—Small Steps to Manage Diabetes, Eli Lilly and Company, Grey

Consumer advertising might be taking a hit in the media and Congress, but pharma was all smiles at this year's PhAME Awards as the best DTC campaigns took the spotlight

Merck Takes Top Honors At PhAME Awards

 has joined forces with a number of major journal publishers in an effort to get relevant content to doctors faster. Physicians can now directly link a discussion on Sermo to an article published by Nature Publishing Group, Advanstar Communications, or the American Medical Association, to name just a few. (Advanstar is the owner of 

.) The program allows more than one discussion about a single topic, and source material is linked to the conversation thread to prevent spreading of misinformation.

Publishers involved in the program can direct their readers to participate in discussions about the articles on Sermo. In turn, the Web site reciprocates by giving publishers information about conversations involving their articles.


Compared to traditional feedback methods, such as letters to the editor or comments, Sermo's program is located on a physicians-only message board with an extremely high participation rate. The Sermo platform also couples a doctor-generated quantitative survey with every topic of discussion.

Sermo does not charge a subscription fee or advertise on the site. Instead, it charges outside groups to gain access to information being generated by the 60,000 physicians in the community.

Sounds a bit invasive? Sure, but doctors don't seem to mind. Alex Frost, Sermo's vice president of research, told Pharm Exec that the company is transparent about its funding, and physicians are excited about transmitting information efficiently to outside groups.

For example, when FDA recently questioned physicians on Sermo about their knowledge of potentially toxic plasticizers in PVC medical devices, it generated more than 1,500 replies in just a few days.

"There is amazing information that can be gleamed just by looking at the physician-to-physician discussions. We also allow outside parties a very limited right to ask questions of the physician community," Frost said. "However, the vast majority of conversations are peer-to-peer."


Through Sermo, physicians can access any journal article from participating publishers, including those covering off-label uses of drugs. While Sermo is not working expressly with FDA or pharma on the issue of changing regulations to allow pharma to circulate and promote journal articles to doctors, the company is paying close attention to pending legislation on the topic.

"If the regulations change in that regard, pharma companies could use the Sermo platform to promote some research articles related to off-label indications of drug product," Frost said. "What's most significant is that Sermo physicians are empowered to discuss those things, and rate and comment on articles. If they think it's significant, they can add to the conversation." Conversely, if they think the article is disingenuous, they can ignore or demote the information.

Sermo does not moderate, censor, or control discussions. Rather, physicians are empowered to moderate their own discussions. Frost said that the physicians have had open conversations about ghost written articles and disingenuous information.

"We put the judgment of the veracity and the significance of the information into the hands of many people," Frost said. "In doing so, it stands to be another safeguard. Although physicians are not all well-trained to interpret research articles, they are very sensitive to BS in promotional material because they've been living and breathing that from industry for a long time."

Physicians have responded positively to the idea of bringing pharma to the table on Sermo. "In this medium, [physicians] feel they can have an equal footing and an equal amount of say in an egalitarian manner, and interact with pharma companies more on their own terms than they have in the past," Frost said.

Still hoping the journal article on your drug's adverse reactions will go unnoticed? Think again. A new partnership between medical journals and physician social networking site Sermo just made chatting about drugs a lot easier.

Pharmaceutical Executive-05-07-2008

J&J Drops 400 in Biologics

Merck Takes Top Honors At PhAME Awards

Sermo Joins With Med Mags