Boxes of Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk are seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.
Hollie Adams | Reuters
Think a friend or colleague must be getting this text? Share this link with them to enroll.
Good afternoon! Drugmakers spent big on advertisements for weight reduction and diabetes treatments last yr as they wrestled for dominance within the booming marketplace for those drugs.
Corporations spent greater than $1 billion on ads for weight reduction and diabetes medicines in 2023, up 51% from the prior yr, in response to recent data from promoting analytics firm MediaRadar. That is nearly 15% of drugmakers’ $7.6 billion in ad spending for pharmaceuticals last yr.
Diabetes treatments accounted for nearly $790 million in ad spending in 2023, while weight reduction drugs made up almost $264 million.
So, why is that this data necessary? Such a surge in spending demonstrates the frenzy by firms to capture recent customers after months of hype around Novo Nordisk‘s diabetes drug Ozempic and weight reduction counterpart Wegovy. Those drugs have soared in demand despite their roughly $1,000 price tags and limited insurance coverage.
Wegovy and Ozempic “have been on the forefront of promoting, endorsements from public figures and consistent media exposure, which contributes to the general expenditure and has necessitated increased promoting investments to capture and expand market share,” MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman told CNBC.
And initial data for this yr suggests that ad spending for weight reduction and diabetes drugs is not slowing.
Drugmakers spent nearly $120 million on ads for those treatments through the primary two months of 2024, in response to MediaRadar. That could be a slight decrease from the identical period a yr ago on account of aspects reminiscent of “prescription changes,” nevertheless it still accounts for 10% of overall prescription ad spending in January and February.
“We expect ad spending within the diabetes and weight reduction category to stay strong and even increase as brands strive to capitalize on the growing market and demand,” Krizelman said.
Now, let’s dig a bit of bit more into the information.
MediaRadar compiled ad spending from national TV broadcasts, print publications, newspapers and web sites, podcasts and social media platforms from Jan. 1, 2022 to Feb. 29, 2024.
The firm identified six weight reduction and diabetes drugs that drove ad spending last yr:
- Ozempic from Novo Nordisk — an injection for Type 2 diabetes
- Wegovy from Novo Nordisk — an injection for obesity
- Rybelsus from Novo Nordisk — a pill for Type 2 diabetes
- Mounjaro from Eli Lilly — an injection for Type 2 diabetes
- Jardiance from Boehringer Ingelheim — a pill for Type 2 diabetes
- Farxiga from AstraZeneca — a pill for Type 2 diabetes
Wegovy accounted for $263 million in ad spending in 2023, which may’t be compared yr over yr because the drug was approved in 2022, in response to MediaRadar. Novo Nordisk in May additionally paused some key promotion for Wegovy, specifically local and national TV promoting.
Ozempic made up $208 million in ad spending last yr, up just 4% from the previous yr.
Mounjaro accounted for $139 million in ad spending, a whopping 16 times greater than in 2022.
Here’s the ad-spend rating for those six drugs:
- Wegovy: $263 million
- Ozempic: $208 million
- Rybelsus: $199 million
- Jardiance: $148 million
- Mounjaro: $139 million
- Farxiga: $68 million
National TV is overwhelmingly the highest format for weight reduction and diabetes drug promoting up to now in 2024, MediaRadar said. The firm didn’t provide detailed data on ad formats for last yr.
Drugmakers invested 88% or more of their ad spending for Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Jardiance and Farxiga in television in the primary two months of this yr.
Rybelsus was the exception. Novo Nordisk spent 63% of its ad spending for Rybelsus on online video despite scaling back investment within the format in comparison with 2023, MediaRadar said.
Krizelman said the shift toward spending on TV ads is on account of its “broader reach and talent to focus on” patients more more likely to be affected by diabetes and obesity. TV commercials even have a “higher impact by way of trust and credibility in comparison with online channels,” he added.
This yr, I plan to observe what spending on Eli Lilly’s recent obesity treatment Zepbound will appear to be. That drug won approval within the U.S. in November, and a few analysts say it could eventually grow to be the top-selling drug of all time.
Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the drug and similar treatments later this yr.
Be happy to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.
Latest in health-care technology
FDA approves first AI diagnostic tool for sepsis
Signage is seen outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, Aug. 29, 2020.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
It’s an enormous day for the health tech startup Prenosis.
The ten-year-old Chicago-based company announced Wednesday that its artificial intelligence-powered diagnostic tool for sepsis has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It’s the primary time the agency has ever authorized such a solution.
Sepsis occurs when the body has an extreme response to an infection. It’s notoriously difficult to diagnose, and infrequently deadly. Around 1.7 million adults within the U.S. develop sepsis every year, and 1 in 3 patients who die in a hospital developed sepsis during that hospitalization, in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prenosis’ tool, called Sepsis ImmunoScore, uses 22 different parameters to assist clinicians assess a patient’s risk of sepsis, in response to a release. While doctors and nurses are sometimes chargeable for monitoring these aspects individually, Sepsis ImmunoScore uses AI to guage all of them without delay.
The tool spits out an overall risk rating, in addition to 4 categories that reflect a patient’s risk of degradation, the discharge said. Sepsis ImmunoScore is integrated inside the electronic health record, and clinicians can see exactly which parameters were used to calculate the chance rating.
In 2022, the FDA updated its guidance for firms and gave quite a lot of examples of device software functions that it intends to oversee. The agency said software that “analyzes patient-specific medical information to detect a life-threatening condition, reminiscent of stroke or sepsis” falls under this category.
Prenosis told CNBC that while it could have gone on to market with its solution, as other firms just like the health-care software vendor Epic Systems have done, it didn’t need to attempt to sell Sepsis ImmunoScore without FDA authorization. The corporate said the approval process took around 18 months.
Prenosis will now conduct additional studies and start to sell the product to hospitals across the U.S. Eventually, the corporate hopes its technology will appear in hospitals across the globe.
Be happy to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.
— CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.
