Intra-Cellular rolled out its first bipolar ad campaign for Caplyta after nabbing a new FDA approval for the condition at the end of last year.
This isn’t Caplyta's first DTC rodeo, though; back in the summer of 2020, Intra-Cellular ran its “Real Progress” advertising, and in March 2021, a connected “See Progress Differently” campaign that focused on its original 2019 schizophrenia label.
But after getting the FDA green light for bipolar depression in late December 2021, the pharma is now turning its DTC focus on that new, lucrative indication.
And boy has it shelled out: The ad, which first aired in early April, has already seen more than $13 million in spend over the past month, making Caplyta one of the largest pharma ad spenders in April, according to the real-time ad trackers at iSpot.tv.
The new campaign takes a detour from “progress” to focus on “letting in the light,” with several patients looking gloomy in the shadows as a narrator talks about how depression can “leave you in a dark place.”
But “what if you could see the signs of hope all around you?” the narrator continues. The ad plays on the Caplyta name, linking the “lyte” to “light” and talking up the drug’s capacity to treat bipolar types I and II, and not just bipolar I as most medicines do.
The two varieties of bipolar disorder affect around 11 million adults in the U.S. and are characterized by recurring episodes of mania (highs) interposed with episodes of major depression. Bipolar I and bipolar II, which is milder, each account for half of people with bipolar disorder.
The ad also says that in trials it “was not common” that the drug increased weight gain and “inner restlessness,” two common side effects among other bipolar treatments that can affect patients’ continued use—and Caplyta's selling point.
The drug competes with Allergan’s Vraylar and Sunovion’s Latuda, though analysts see the drug’s safety as an advantage over other drugs that could help drive sales.
Caplyta revenue hit $25.5 million in the fourth quarter compared to $12.4 million the year before, a boost of 106%. In its full-year financials reported in March, the company said it was already seeing “robust initial prescription growth” after its launch in bipolar depression.
Comparing the first seven weeks of 2022 following the launch to the same period in the prior quarter, new prescriptions of the drug grew 48% and total prescriptions by 35%. “These encouraging trends have been accompanied by positive physician receptivity to Caplyta’s bipolar approval in a broad patient population,” the company added.
We’ll see more color on those figures on May 10 when Intra-Cellular releases its first quarter financials.