With rival Sanofi sidelined, Mylan pushes full steam ahead on EpiPen social media effort

Mylan ($MYL) may have some EpiPen competition out of the way right now in recently recalled Auvi-Q from Sanofi ($SNY), but that doesn't mean the drugmaker is letting up on the social media marketing front.

Auggie Maturo

On the contrary, Mylan's three celebrity spokespeople--"Project Runway" judge and Marie Claire creative director Nina Garcia, chef Amanda Freitag and 8-year-old "Girl Meets World" actor Auggie Maturo--have kept the company's latest campaign rolling.

With "EpiPen On Location," the trio have been sharing their stories of managing food allergies since May, recording videos of their experiences and sharing them through Twitter with the hashtag #OnLocationTips. Last month in particular, tweets centered around Thanksgiving, with Maturo tweeting, "RT if Thanksgiving dinner is your fav like Auggie's. Ours is always allergy-friendly," and Freitag tweeting her thankfulness for followers' "support in spreading #foodallergy awareness."

The campaign is just one way Mylan has recently doubled down on efforts to promote EpiPen with consumers. In August, it bolstered its Disney ($DIS) partnership with the launch of informational website MyAllergyKingdom.com, and last November, it set up EpiPen locations on Disney's parks and cruise ships.

And the timing for that push was no accident. In 2013, Sanofi won approval for Auvi-Q, the first epinephrine injection to challenge EpiPen in some 25 years on the market. Allergists were upbeat about the product, thanks to features like automated voice instructions to help users with injections.

Luckily for Mylan, though, it caught a break last month, when the French drugmaker pulled its rival from the market on suspicion that Auvi-Q pens might be delivering inaccurate doses. Shortly after, Teva ($TEVA) said it wouldn't be in a position to win approval for its generic version until at least the second half of next year, leading Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal to predict that Mylan would be able to capture about 95% of the epinephrine injection market.

- visit the EpiPen On Location website
- read Mylan's release on the campaign

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