New Insomnia Drug Hits Shelves April
Purdue Pharma is investing a huge proportion of its budget for a budding pharmaceutical drug for insomnia. Intermezzo is a new drug that was released on April 5 to treat insomnia that occurs in the middle of the night. The marketing budget for said drug is pegged at 100 million dollars to be used over the next year. These figures were released by Transcept Pharmaceuticals, the company that gave the marketing privileges to Purdue.
Such a huge media budget is breaking news the pharmaceutical niche, which for years now has tossed the idea of bug-budget campaigns pretty much out the window. Factors like the economic recession, the fact that drugs are now widely available in generic form and a dry pipeline of newer products may serve to explain why this industry trend is prevalent in the pharmaceuticals.
According to Kantar Media, pharmaceutical companies spent a high of 5.4 billion dollars in 2006 on ads that directly reached their consumers. The campaign was powered by the launch of another popular insomnia drug called Lunesta. Sunovion Pharmaceuticals launched the insomnia aid Lunesta in 2005 and spent a total of 100 million dollars over 8 months to market it. In 2006, company spending was increased to 320 million dollars.
Marketing consultant Mike Guarini said that as of late experts have seen fewer new products launch at that big-budget level. Marketing campaigns have been less expensive, understated. Last year total direct-to-consumer spending hit a 5-year low of 4.34 billion dollars. Guarini is a veteran in martketing for pharmaceutical companies, from perspective of both the advertisers and the clients. Guarini used to be the President of Ogilvy Healthworld, a prominent healthcare marketing agency. He also used to be Marketing Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
As luck would have it, insomnia drugs have actually enjoyed huge exposure. IMS Health announced that the insomnia drug market has been spending significant funds for advertising. Media spending grew from 1.8 billion dollars in 2010 to 2.1 billion dollars in 2011. Insomnia drugs like Lunesta and those from Sanofi-Aventis, including Ambien and Ambien CR, now own as much as two-thirds of the market share. Between October 2010 and September 2011 about 78 million prescriptions and prescription refills for insomnia drugs were issued. This is a huge figure compared to its predecessor of 47 million in 2006.
A group called Transcript stated that there are approximately 22 million Americans suffering from insomnia today. In light of these statistics, Intermezzo is sure to be a big hit on pharmacy shelves. Online financial analyst SeekingAlpha.com projected that the current Intermezzo launch is yet another “blockbuster” insomnia drug campaign in the works. Representatives of Purdue Group have suggested that the company plans to rely on traditional marketing strategies and online marking strategies. Mike Innaurato, Executive Director of Marketing, said that Purdue will bank on the image of Intermezzo as fundamentally a different product, not comparable to Ambien and Lunesta.
According to an email allegedly written by Innaurato, the insomnia drug Intermezzo is the first prescription insomnia drug that has been approved for use as needed in order to treat insomnia that occurs in the middle of the night. People with insomnia who wake up in the middle of the night and then experience difficulty falling back asleep may be interested in treatment with the insomnia drug Intermezzo.
Purdue is a private company and there is not a lot of disclosure when it comes to the group’s marketing aims. After the new insomnia drug has been on the market for the regulatory period of at least 6 months, Purdue will launch its expensive campaign. Whether Intermezzo will prove a commercial success is still known; there are still a lot of game-changing factors on the table. To ask a doctor about the insomnia drug Intermezzo, please refer to our medical directory to find a certified sleep specialist in your area.
