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Originally Published IVD Technology June 2005
INDUSTRY NEWS
Digene ads stoke interest in
direct-to-consumer marketing
Matt Grebow
 |
| Digene’s Corp.’s (Gaithersburg, MD) ads appeal directly to patients. |
To IVD industry observers, the fanfare with which Digene Corp. (Gaithersburg, MD) rolled out a direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising campaign for its DNAwithPap human papilloma virus (HPV) test in March seemed to herald a new age in diagnostics marketing. Although DTC ads have become commonplace for pharmaceutical companies ever since FDA revised its guidelines for prescription drug advertising on television in 1997, IVD companies have been slow to adopt the trend. After Digene’s announcement, then, it seems only natural to ask whether the IVD industry will finally follow pharma’s lead.
In its last earnings calls, Digene estimated it will spend $3 million to $5 million between March and December to promote its HPV test to consumers through a combination of print ads and television commercials. The spots, which do not mention the test by name, urge women to learn more about HPV and to speak with their doctors about early screening.
DTC advertising for diagnostics is not a new concept. Between 1998 and 1999, Cytyc Corp. (Marlborough, MA) spent $6 million to promote its ThinPrep Pap test directly to consumers in what was widely considered a successful marketing push. Douglas White, vice president of commercial operations, the Americas, at Digene, says that his company’s decision to target patients for its HPV test was based on a perceived lack of education among women on cervical cancer and its causes.
“The most important factor to consider, no matter what the industry, is the product’s degree of ‘consumer sensitivity.’ In other words, to what extent does the patient play a role in initiating a request for the drug or device,” explains White. “In our case, physicians were telling us that they had very little time for the required patient education, but that if women had basic information and asked for and about the test, then they would be more likely to have the conversation and consider ordering it for more women. Now, that’s an ideal opportunity.”
David Bull, fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) tactical marketing manager, primary care diagnostics, at Beckman Coulter Inc. (Fullerton, CA), agrees that consumer advertising will appear more frequently in promoting IVDs. “Without a doubt, DTC marketing that has been a staple of the pharmaceutical industry will start to apply to IVD companies,” he says. “But this won’t occur across the board. Diagnostics or screening is dependent upon disease-state management and must be associated with better health and better patient outcomes.”
According to Bull, diagnostics DTC advertising today tends to be “disease specific” rather than “product specific.” Although he says Beckman Coulter has begun conducting DTC marketing for its Hemoccult colorectal cancer screening test and might begin product-specific marketing as soon as next year, up to now it has focused its efforts on promoting the general health benefits of its product. One reason for this, he says, is that unlike the pharmaceutical industry, where companies are often able to individualize their products from others in the same class, many diagnostics are not as easily identifiable. “To date, most IVDs have a commodity feel, but this will change as manufacturers develop differentiated tests and platforms,” he says.
For Digene, this lag in IVD branding has worked in the company’s favor. Since the DNAwithPap test was approved in April 2003, it has remained the only FDA-approved diagnostic for high-risk types of HPV. This market dynamic has enabled the company to build its presence in an area where there is no need for product differentiation. White says this has also helped Digene forge partnerships with third-party organizations. Since March, Digene has announced collaborations with groups including the Women’s National Basketball Association, Women In Government, and the Balm In Gilead.
Still, despite the DTC marketing pathways created by the pharmaceuticals, neither White nor Bull believes that consumer marketing for IVDs will soon reach the level attained by the pharma industry. Instead, both say that the focus of diagnostic marketing will likely remain on the industry’s more-traditional advertising audience: physicians and clinicians. Explains White: “Our primary branding efforts are not with consumers but with clinical laboratories.”
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