Astellas Pharma is slowing things down in the inaugural consumer-facing marketing blast for eye disease drug Izervay.
Izervay was approved by the FDA just over a year ago, shortly after Astellas shelled out nearly $6 billion to acquire Iveric Bio, the drug’s original maker. It’s cleared to treat geographic atrophy, an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration that can progress quickly and lead to irreversible vision loss.
The direct-to-consumer campaign that Astellas kicked off Monday centers around the message that Izervay may help to slow down the progression of GA. Its aim is three-pronged: to raise awareness, inspire action and build hope in people with the disease, according to Mike Petroutsas, head of U.S. commercial at Astellas.
“There’s over 1.5 million people that are living with GA in the United States, and we believe over 75% of them are undiagnosed—so there’s a huge opportunity to build awareness,” he said in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing, adding that growing awareness about both the disease and its potential treatments may then help activate patients.
As for the final piece, Petroutsas noted that there weren’t any prescription medicines available specifically to treat GA until last year, when both Izervay and Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ Syfovre earned FDA approval in the indication. Making patients aware of one of those new treatments through the campaign could therefore provide a sense of hope, he said.
“Once you’re part of that 25% that’s been diagnosed and you find out you’re losing your eyesight, it is scary,” he said. “Having that hope will better allow for that physician-to-patient conversation to occur, to get to a better outcome.”
With those goals in mind, the campaign’s target audience is primarily people who have been newly diagnosed with GA and those with dry age-related macular degeneration. That group largely comprises people 55 and older, so Astellas is also hoping to reach caregivers, “a segment that’s become critical with the aging population,” per Petroutsas.
The campaign will target those patients and their caregivers from a variety of angles: via radio, print, digital and social media, in-office materials and an updated patient-facing website, alongside a commercial that’ll be broadcast on many popular channels across traditional and connected TV.
The minute-long commercial offers a literal representation of the way Izervay promises to hit the brakes on GA. In it, a woman is shown driving slowly around town in an orange convertible with the license plate “SLOW-GA” as a voiceover describes the disease and how Izervay may be able to help. As she cruises along, the sunglasses-clad woman waves at her doctor—while a split screen shows her visiting his office for a check-up—and stops at a diner to grab a milkshake before continuing on her way, with her brightly hued car catching the eye of several impressed passersby.
The ad is accompanied by an Izervay-specific version of the 1975 hit song “Low Rider,” where the original line “All my friends know the low rider / The low rider is a little higher” has been replaced by “Slow it down, get it going slower / Izervay gets GA going slower.”
The song parody not only ties into the core message of the campaign but also adds a memorable element, Petroutsas said.
“Really, the creative spark started with that classic song … that allowed us to feature that cruising and that feel that you take away from the commercial,” he said, adding, “Overall, it was a lot of fun and, I think, probably one of the best I’ve seen in my time in pharma.”
The DTC campaign was a collaboration between Astellas and agencies The Bloc and Good Apple, and it arrives after the company has already been working to educate healthcare providers about Izervay.
“Now that we feel that we’ve done a good job reaching many of those and they’re both aware of our medicine and how to use it, and also the options that they have, we feel like we’ve accomplished a good part of that and now it’s our opportunity to really activate and hopefully get the other 75% of patients that we believe have GA that haven’t even gone into the office yet,” Petroutsas said.
The campaign’s rollout reflects Astellas’ larger marketing strategy in two key ways, he said. For one, the company is focusing heavily on implementing an omnichannel approach across its marketing work: “really understanding your segments and then targeting and investing in the areas that you’re going to find them, vs. just a blanket approach,” he explained. For another, Astellas has ramped up its efforts to dig into quantitative and qualitative insights about its audience to better understand patients and their behaviors.
“The investment both on the research up front and in the channels that we’re using is definitely beneficial,” Petroutsas said. “We think ultimately, by taking that approach, it’s actually helping the HCPs as well, not only the patients.”