Remember back in 2006 all the buzz surrounding Exubera, Pfizer's inhalable insulin product? It was much-hyped by Pfizer and, let's face, the media happily joined in too, spreading the word that (as Pfizer would have it) Exubera would be wildly successful and make squillions of dollars for investors. It didn't work out that way at all. Sales so far have topped out at around four million dollars per quarter, far short of the two billion projected before the product was released. Now, in a bid to lift lackluster sales, Pfizer is launching a major ad campaign for Exubera. Yes, the inhaler device is extremely indiscreet. Yes, long-term use of the drug itself could cause lung damage. Oh, and health insurers may not cover prescriptions for Exubera for those diabetics who want to try it. But I guess where there's a slick selling strategy there's a way...into the pockets of consumers, that is.
Which is not to say I blame Pfizer. The company has poured so much money into this product, does it really have a choice at this point? No. Also, it's entirely possible Pfizer could turn things around. This article by Arlene Weintraub for Business Week reminds readers that the drug giant had enormous success with its clever ad campaigns for Viagra and for the incontinence drug Detrol. Writes Weintraub, this new campaign will probably cost Pfizer big-time: we're talking tens of millions of dollars, but it will be worth it for Pfizer if it can reproduce that kind of success.
1. As I noted in my May 11 blog post on this topic (http://sstrumello.blogspot.com/2007/04/convincing-diabetics-they-need-exubera.html) its unclear whether marketing alone will be sufficient to overcome the medical, economic, practical and legal concerns that have hurt Exubera. Exubera's biggest advantage over standard insulin is that it doesn't require injections. But the success of injectable medicines like Byetta has proven that the advantage of inhalable insulin is not as big as developers had long assumed it would be. Wall Street analysts are skeptical that consumer ads will produce better results.
"We are not aware of any pharmaceutical product that has ever become a blockbuster that was not endorsed by specialists," says Merrill Lynch analyst David Risinger, who in January lowered his initial 2008 sales projection to $175 million from $300 million.
"I think Pfizer is on drugs" if it believes it will get $2 billion a year from Exubera, said David Kliff, publisher of Diabetic Investor (http://www.diabeticinvestor.com/), a specialist investment data company. If Pfizer does reach its goal, "I'm going to run down Madison Avenue naked," he says. Kliff believes Pfizer will be lucky if Exubera ultimately does half the business that Pfizer is predicting.
Let's hold David to his promise if Pfizer does manage to turn Exubera around!!
Posted at 2:20PM on Jul 26th 2007 by Scott