Idorsia hit the marketing ground running with its insomnia launch, debuting an awareness campaign starring popular “Friends” actress Jennifer Aniston just days after its Quviviq approval in January. Now the insomnia brand hit shelves this week with a sales force rollout to physicians, digital and social media ads and plans for a direct-to-consumer campaign coming soon.
A field team of about 500 sales reps plus another 100 customer-facing medical affairs, market access and others are reaching out to physicians in the first wave of Quviviq marketing, said Patricia Torr, president and general manager of Idorsia US. About 75% of the target group of doctors are primary care, with psychiatry and a few other specialties making up the rest.
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Stymied by Medicare and forced to admit the end of its once sky-high hopes in the controversial Alzheimer’s medicine Aduhelm, Biogen announced this morning that CEO Michel Vounatsos is being replaced as the big biotech restructures the pipeline, hunts deals and continues to cut costs with layoffs and more.
Vounatsos became a lightning rod for intense criticism of the Aduhelm fiasco as Biogen did a sudden about-face and sought an FDA approval after initially flagging a defeat in pivotal studies. Surprisingly, the FDA group under Billy Dunn offered an accelerated approval despite doubts about its efficacy and safety. And the drug failed to gain any traction, with vanishing expectations after Medicare restricted coverage to a small minority of potential patients.
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Expansion is the name of Moderna’s game — and for CEO Stéphane Bancel, “This is just the beginning.”
The Singapore-based CRO Novotech has acquired NCGS to expand its global offerings for clients, and finally offer its full-service high-quality clinical services to customers in the US.
Amphista Therapeutics may not be the best-known name in the protein degradation wing of biotech, but it has some marquee pharma names backing its work. And this morning, the biotech is adding two more: Merck KGaA and Bristol Myers Squibb.
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AbbVie celebrity spokesperson, tennis superstar and migraine sufferer Serena Williams is back in another TV ad for its acute treatment Ubrelvy. The new ad highlights the you, or rather “U,” in the message that Ubrelvy helps “U” and reminds the women shown that “U do it all.”
AbbVie first enlisted Williams for Ubrelvy in 2020 as a busy athlete, mom and businesswoman who takes the medicine herself to lead its multichannel “Anytime Anywhere” themed campaign. She has since appeared in a handful of commercials that focus on her busy day and the times she uses Ubrelvy — waking up, in traffic, during business meetings or on the tennis court.
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