Provenge TV Advertising Campaign Starts Next Month

You must be mentally ill if you are attacking him.

BTW, the ad campaign is working

 

I saw the provenge commercial on Face the Nation this morning. We are getting national exposure.

 

Why is nobody asking:

Why did it take 2 years after FDA approval for the company to decide to sell the product?

I suppose that's what is meant by management not providing any guidance...

 

Another doc brought up the provenge commercial to me yesterday. He told he he had several patient inquiries from patients. Some are being screened now to see if the qualify. It is early yet, since the commercial has only been airing for 2 weeks, but it certainly seems to be having the desired effect.

 

How has the big DTC ad worked out? Haha stock says its dumb.

 

I keep hearing positive comments about the TV commercial. It is working.

 

How exactly to you make the leap from "positive comments" to product usage? Let me tell you something bright guy. Comments does not equal sales. Remember when we were all in primary care and the doc would say " Yeah, I use your drug all the time. " Well "Positive comments" are a lot like that.

The poster who commented about complex sell makes the point very well. Reps that have laid a solid foundation will reap the benefits of the commercials. Those who think sales will grow because of positive comments will be on a pip in 3 mos.

Deuces

 

The "positive comments" revolve around MDs stating that patients saw the provenge commercial, followed by the patient visiting their MD to find out if they qualify for the treatment, followed by the patient signing up for provenge.

 

This ain't allergy medicine. What are you talking about? The situation previously described only plays out if (and I underscore if) the doctor is a clinical believer. Otherwise, the patient will be treted accoeding to another pathway. I don't know where you live or what doctor you see but folk just don't get cancer treatments because they ask for it. Of course there is some patient input but there are guardrails on the doctor patient discussion governed by what the doctor believes are viable treatments options.

So I say again, for the reps that have laid a sound foundation, expect to see a bump. But for those who are waiting for the commercials to work, expect a pip in 3 mos.

 

The patient can always find a doctor that will treat him with provenge. The pull through rate for patients that inquire about provenge is very high.

 

Is that the plan? Hope the patient goes to another doctor who uses Provenge. Will you listen to yourself?

I hate to break this to you but if the first doc the patient sees doesn't utilize Provenge then the chances of that patient getting it go way, way, way down.

 

Patients seek out Provenge providers by themselves all the time. Also, when their current doctor is not a provider, if a patient asks for Provenge most times their current doctor will refer them to one that does. I have closed several sales exactly in this manner.

 

That may be true in your case but it is a piss poor plan for success.

 

John Johnson yesterday on the TV commercial:

"First of all, as you said, the DTC campaign is off to a great start. Frankly, better than we thought. It normally does take four to seven times for a patient to view a commercial before they will take action. We have seen that a little faster here. That said, they still have to call us, get information, go see their doctor, get scheduled, get aid and then infused. So you are really not going to see the substantial benefit from the campaign until we get closer until the September timeframe, just given the normal time progress through that.

That said, let me give you some anecdotal responses that we have had. I was at a AUA. We had some of our sales folks in there spoke to our district manager from Texas. We have had three accounts in the last two weeks that had never before used PROVENGE, get Dendreon systems ready and infuse patients. The reason was because they have patients that came in and asked for it.

I would say probably of the 40 folks that I talked to probably 80%, it had a patient mention PROVENGE since we have initiated the campaign. So these were normally larger accounts. So I want to put that proviso on there. But it was clear that the patients were seeing the ad and asking about it. Obviously there needs to be an appropriate patient in our label and in our window but it was gaining momentum. Every customer I spoke to thus far, bar none, has been very positive about the ad both in terms of the way that it was done and the fact that we are airing it."

 

I have been to able to close some sales directly because of the TV commercial. It has certainly been a help.

 

No ISS refers to a patient as a "sale"- none. We get that you are trying to post positive things here but be respectful and accurate.

 

I have closed sales as well due to the commercial.

 

Thanks for posting. This is what I am seeing in the field as well.

 

Isn't "closing a sale with patients" something that sends sales reps to jail?

I'm trying to recall the story a few years back where some did go to jail, wasn't one of our DMs named in that case?

 

http://247wallst.com/2013/05/15/dendreon-gets-prostate-cancer-competition-for-provenge-from-bayers-xofigo/