Friday, March 14, 2008

Restless Leg Syndrome...really?

The first time I saw an ad on RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) I thought, "you've got to be kidding me!" With all due respect to the 3% of American folks who suffer through this, I thought "this is not a disease." Well the makers of Requip (Glaxo) and Mirapex (Boehringer Ingelheim) have remarketed a drug that was originally developed for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and now is being marketed to treat RLS. Some would say that the medicines (side effects) are worse than the cure. Consumer Reports has started a monthly campaign to debunk pharma ads and the latest recipients of this treatment are the RLS drugs. If you haven't seen the spot here it is
What kind of effect will this type of backlash on pharma ads have on drug sales? What type of response does this warrant from drug marketers? Who will be next?

No comments: