Pfizer now rides on the plank of generic Lipitor launches

After having fought tooth and nail for years to prevent an early launch of generic Lipitor (Atorvastatin) by companies such as Ranbaxy in key markets like the US, Pfizer is now riding on the prospect of the very same generic launches to save its market share in other geographies such as Europe.

It has done so by releasing a audiovisual advertisement urging doctors in select EU countries to not switch to other low-cost alternatives (such as Simvastatin) to control cholesterol. The reason: Pfizer says cheaper generic versions of Atorvastatin (the likes marketed by Ranbaxy in the US) are on their way and would flood the European market in just a few month?s time, once Lipitor’s patent expires on May 7.

Marketing this date as ?a unique cardiovascular event you can predict and prepare for? and whose ?outcome would be positive?, Pfizer says that ?barriers to prescribing (Lipitor) may be lifted such as price may no longer be a restriction?. Some term this unprecedented marketing stroke while others do not agree.

The rationale behind Pfizer?s promotional campaign is the fear of losing Lipitor market share to cheaper drug substitutes with the same therapeutic profile such as Simvastatin, much before it loses the Atorvastatin marketshare to generic players such as Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy?s and Teva.

The trigger behind such a pitch is the larger decision of government agencies across Europe to reduce healthcare spending. One of the cost cutting measures suggested by NICE, a special health authority in UK, includes a recommendation to general physicians that ?statin? therapy (statins are a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels, to which Atorvastatin and Simvastatin belong) should usually be initiated with a drug with a low acquisition cost. Since Simvastatin lost its patent in 2003, and its economical generic versions are readily available, it emerges as a preferred choice for new prescriptions among physicians, depleting Pfizer?s share in new prescriptions getting generated.

Pfizer is clearly looking at replicating this promotional campaign in other geographies. ?Pfizer will be looking to raise awareness of this important calendar date in all relevant geographies ? namely those markets that will see a generic version of Lipitor become available in 2012,? a Pfizer spokesperson told FE.

?On an intellectual plane, this promotional campaign definitely suggests a clear 180-degree shift for Pfizer in terms of their stated conviction on Lipitor. But this fast and flexible repositioning of Pfizer on the issue is a very clever and smart move that demonstrates the tactical dexterity of a market leader,? said Murali Nair, partner, Ernst & Young. Another pharmaceutical analyst equated Pfizer?s marketing strategy with a skillful debater who can cogently speak for and against a motion. However, another pharma expert said, ?This also goes to show that in the pharmaceutical business, most stated convictions are driven by one agenda or the other?.

A British portal calculates that primary healthcare spending on Lipitor in England has already plunged to $468 million in 2010 from $552 million in 2004, mainly because doctors are writing more prescriptions of cheaper Simvastatin. If the promotional campaign strikes a chord with English medicos, Pfizer stands to earn almost $200 million more in the five months preceding the patent expiry.

On whether the campaign is working, a Pfizer spokesperson said that it is too early in the campaign to be definitive in terms of impact but they are encouraged by how it has been received by the healthcare professional community to date. The Pfizer spokesperson also clarified that the company is not advocating a change in therapy for those patients who are well-managed on current treatment and are meeting their cholesterol lowering goals.

?A marketing move such as this by a pharmaceutical company is unprecedented to my knowledge, or at least is undocumented,? Nair said.

Not everyone is impressed with Pfizer?s Lipitor marketing ways. John Singer, a US consultant, estimates Lipitor was consuming most of the $11 billion Pfizer was spending annually on promotion, making it an exorbitantly expensive product for the company to market. Another US pharma marketing expert, John Mack, while not specifically commenting this campaign, told FE that he protested many of Pfizer?s market-share retention techniques in the US by giving a call to ?Occupy Pfizer? on the lines of ?Occupy Wall Street?. Experts on both sides of the fence, though, agree that the marketing of this cult brand may become the subject of highest number of case studies in the pharma space.