I’ve been involved in pharmaceutical marketing—including DTC, DTP, non-personal promotion and CRM—since the late 1990s. My work has encompassed a wide variety of disease states, audiences (consumers, patients, and healthcare providers), and stages in the product lifecycle (launch to peak to late-stage).
My involvement in projects has involved everything from research and presentations to writing/supervising/mentoring younger writers to working with art directors and designers to brainstorming and ensuring the final creative product matches the vision and strategy. In fact, my most recent work has included everything from interviewing doctors and writing all copy for a webinar series on a rare endocrine disorder to writing a website for a novel fusion protein for cancer treatment to serving as a consultant on pharma strategy (including segmentation and messaging) and creative. Please click on a link below to see samples of my work:
- Pristiq — New antidepressant launched by Wyeth in 2008; wrote all materials for an HCP program in support of sales rep efforts. In addition to letters and brochures, we developed a series of posters showing striking TEM images of neurons, which told the history of the synapse in an abbreviated form and related it to modern antidepressants.
- Nexium — Developed and supervised writing of a patient RM program to accompany recent rebranding
- FluMist — Developed and supervised a campaign to HCPs, including an edetail dispelling myths about FluMist
- Adderall XR — Streamlined a quarterly tchotchke program into a stage-based program addressing specific obstacles to compliance—and the steep, early drop-off in this category; this program was mentioned in a 2006 Med Ad News article, “DTC Takes a Back Seat.” Because RM starts with your very first contact with patients, the starter kit was designed to include information about ADHD in children and adults; a CD with KOL intros, patient testimonials, and games for kids; and a push to sign up for the Adderall XR RM program. Since drop-off in this category is swift and steep, we needed to reach caregivers and patients with information quickly, to help overcome early obstacles to compliance.
- Azilect — Developed a series of newsletters about Parkinson’s disease for patients and caregivers; this series takes complicated science and makes it comprehensible and useful, and it won an MMA Award for Best Newsletter Series in 2007. You can read Issue 13 and Issue 14. Lack of budget for a microsite led to the development of a self-contained enewsletter, with edited newsletter content and careful attention paid to the normal preview area as well as maximum acceptable scroll length (about 1200 pixels max). Here are the emails based on Life in Balance, Issue 13 and Issue 14.
- Nutropin — Developed the Stepping Stones online patient support program, the first relationship marketing program for a medication in the growth hormone/endocrinology space, speaking to audiences across five indications. It included a registration-only website and ongoing newsletters and other communications, including birthday messages (to reinforce the message of growth and a “missed dose is a missed opportunity”), wall growth charts, salesforce “details” on the importance of adherence to growth hormone therapy, and a “physician screener” to help HCPs probe whether patients really are adherent.
- Zostavax — Developed rich media banners to promote the first and only vaccine for shingles; you can see spec banners for “Beach” and “Remember”; just scroll through the pdfs or put them into slideshow mode to simulate animation–hey, I’m a writer, once I figure out flash, I’ll animate them (but don’t hold your breath)
- RotaTeq — Revised the US website and wrote the international website for a new, effective, and safe rotavirus vaccine
- Rhinocort Aqua — What do you do when you’re reaching out to HCPs in a very promotion-sensitive category, Flonase is advertising heavily just before it loses patent protection, and the talking bee is everywhere for Nasonex? Oh, and when HCPs consider one corticosteroid nasal spray the same as another, and give patients what they ask for. Your major point of difference is that you have a non-irritating formula–which means fewer callbacks for busy practices–but your competitors are beginning to match you with alcohol- and fragrance-free formulas of their own. And you have no new studies since 1998. You make the news with the “Rhino Reader,” a series that helped Rhinocort Aqua slow its losses in the category against big-spending competitors. This was a great test, because Rhinocort Aqua was position 3 in details at very best, and generally was not detailed at all. What’s more, there was no other promotion. When promotion money was pulled in 2007, the brand share dropped sharply. This series won a Medical Marketing & Media Gold Award for Best Use of Direct Marketing in an HCP Campaign, as well as Best in Show at the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association.
- Banyu Japan — Helped localize the Merck HR intranet for this recently acquired Merck affiliate—it was tricky because we were bringing in a merit-based system to a seniority-based culture; I translated the top-level pages and prepared the “translation book” of difficult-to-translate terms for the translation vendor
- Flurizan — Although this drug was killed in Phase III testing, it had been looking good and would have been the first Alzheimer’s medication with a neuroprotective/disease-modifying indication. Since the medication works by a complicated MOA that basically preventions formation of the protein precursors that lead to amyloid plaque in the brain, it had to be given very early in the disease process. I did the research that caused us to settle on “mild cognitive impairment,” or MCI, for an unbranded pre-launch campaign because (1) the symptoms, which are mentioned in the ad, are fairly vague and cast a wide net for acquisition, and because (2) many people with MCI do in fact go on to develop Alzheimer’s. The series included an ad, a rich media banner, a booklet on the early signs of Alzheimer’s, and a newsletter.
I’m most interested in crafting programs that address barriers to compliance by immersing myself in the disease state—as well as patient, caregiver and HCP mindsets. I also love educating the public about disease states in way that is neither condescending nor incomprehensible. Everyone needs to find a “way in” to the science of a disease, and I consider it my job to guide them partway there, where they can attain an expansive view and continue on their own if they wish. The same goes with other writers. You can’t teach a love of science and medical writing, but you can teach a good medical writer to make his or her writing “sing” in order to become a great medical writer, and you can teach a good basic writer the ins and outs of staying on indication, what you can and can’t say, where to push the envelope for various clients, AMA style, and how to make projects sail through med/legal reviews.
