Job Alert: Novartis Seeks Sr. Brand Manager – Prevacid

October 21st, 2010. By AbiK

Need a job? If you’ve got 5+ years experience in CPG marketing with prior healthcare industry experience and knowledge of regulatory issues, well, get that resume submitted over at Novartis pronto! They’re apparently looking for a Senior Brand Manager for Prevacid—the prescription and OTC proton pump inhibitor med used to treat gastroesophogeal reflux disease (aka GERD).

No, I’m not getting a “finder’s fee”, though all donations gratefully received.

The interesting thing about such a job post, if you step back for a moment and really think about it, is what level of soul-searching goes into accepting the role of marketer for a big pharma drug? Does conscience even enter into the equation at any time?

It did for me a while back when I was recruited for a job at a pharma ad agency. The role entailed repositioning a contraceptive (manufacturer and brand need not be mentioned here). But here’s the thing—when I researched it, I found there were a number of adverse events associated with the drug and the drug itself had only recently been ok’d for the marketplace by the FDA. Translation: there wasn’t much of a track record established yet to give oneself that extra bit of confidence that the drug was indeed safe to use with no real risk of longer term ill effects.

After much thought—and trust me, the money was good—I bowed out of the running. See, I had also recently given birth to a baby girl, and I’m convinced there is nothing that has a greater impact on the choices one makes in life than making those choices through the lens of parent, caregiver, role model or provider. So ended my brief foray into pharmaceutical marketing.

So let’s turn to Prevacid. Google Prevacid and the first thing you get is the link from the National Institutes for Health (nih.gov). Here’s what you get smack in your face as soon as you click open the link:

Important Warning:

[Posted 05/25/2010] FDA notified healthcare professionals and patients of revisions to the prescription and over-the-counter [OTC] labels for proton pump inhibitors, which work by reducing the amount of acid in the stomach, to include new safety information about a possible increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist, and spine with the use of these medications.

The new safety information is based on FDA’s review of several epidemiological studies that found those at greatest risk for these fractures received high doses of proton pump inhibitors or used them for one year or more. The majority of the studies evaluated individuals 50 years of age or older and the increased risk of fracture primarily was observed in this age group. While the greatest increased risk for fractures in these studies involved people who had been taking prescription proton pump inhibitors for at least one year or who had been taking high doses of the prescription medications (not available over-the-counter), as a precaution, the ”Drug Facts” label on the OTC proton pump inhibitors (indicated for 14 days of continuous use) also is being revised to include information about this risk. FDA recommends healthcare professionals, when prescribing proton pump inhibitors, should consider whether a lower dose or shorter duration of therapy would adequately treat the patient’s condition.

The safety communication includes a data summary with a table and references which support the epidemiological studies reviewed for this communication. For more information visit the FDA website at: www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation and www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety.

To be clear, Prevacid is not alone—there are many, many drugs out there that need to be marketed and some with greater side effect warnings than this (think of all the drugs with black box warnings). But Prevacid is in a class of drugs—proton pump inhibitors—that has recently come under fire for being linked to fractures of the hip, wrist and spine.

So as a would-be-marketer begins to research the Prevacid job opportunity, the issue isn’t, in my mind, to look at the cold, hard numbers and determine how many people have benefited from Prevacid vs. how many have experienced a fracture as a direct result of taking the drug. The issue becomes a question of can I sit down to dinner every night, comfortably, with the knowledge that someone out there may have experienced a fracture because of something I’m marketing?

No, I can’t look at it as merely some form of collateral damage—and I suppose that’s why I don’t work for a company or brand that requires a prescription in order to use the company discount.

Tags: GERD, Prevacid, Proton Pump Inhibitor

This was posted on Thursday, October 21st, 2010 at 10:51 am and is filed under Drugs/Medical . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.