Pharma Brands: Circling the Drain?

By David Paragamian

It's a provocative thought: are Pharma brands circling the drain? And what does that say to Pharma brand marketers?

First, because of the patent life exclusivity granted by the regulatory authorities like the FDA in the US, when a Pharma company launches an individual compound under a brand name, it literally has only a prescribed number of years of exclusivity with that brand name for that indication. So, with every investment in brand building --think of ads to physicians as prescribers, or key opinion leader presentations, or brand.com web pages-- it is all like pouring investment into a virtual brand bathtub...with the drain open. Since, at the magical appointed time the period of brand exclusivity ends, other manufacturers may enter with essentially the same compound (process over-simplified so my apologies to my friends in R&D). Contrast this with the CPG industry where marketing giants like Procter & Gamble have been making investments in a brand like Crest toothpaste since 1956. Yes, year after year, literally filling that metaphorical tub with Crest branding -- things like the ADA seal of endorsement -- and the same metaphorical bathtub just keeps filling.

Now, you may ask: if that's so, what's the point and what can we do about it?

Two answers.

The first point is that brand management in Pharma is not easier than brand management in an industry like CPG. I would argue, on some levels, it may actually be harder. Brand Managers in the Pharma/biotech industry may be hustling faster, harder. Because the period of patent exclusivity is short compared to consumer branding, pharma brand marketers must work hard before the brand is launched to prepare the market by underscoring the unique disease/condition burdens, they must launch fast and well, and they must make every decision from positioning, to launch advertising, to experience strategy in the customer journey truly matter. Every day. From day one.

The second point is that great pharma marketers know about the "bathtub", of course, and they make strategic investments in not just one brand, but often a therapeutic category -- think of companies, for example, like Eli Lilly in CNS. They successful launched the first SSRI, Prozac, explaining that "Depression hurts. Prozac can help." And followed years later with Cymbalta, again under the same construct. There are many examples of pharma companies both big and small making this same strategy work: investing in building a therapeutic area franchise in women's healthcare; or in oncology; the list goes on. That way there actually IS a metaphorical bathtub - the therapeutic area -- that they are constantly filling. And filling. And filling.

I have great respect for brand marketers everywhere. No-one's job is easy today whether you are marketing toothpaste, automobiles, or a compound to treat cancer. Brand management is a discipline. And that discipline in the pharma space is a special craft, indeed.