AbbVie is going heavy on repetition with the first series of ads for its new preventative migraine drug, Qulipta.
The drug, an oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist (gepant), was FDA-approved late last year to prevent episodic migraine and launched around three months ago.
AbbVie, a major TV ad spender, has wasted no time getting into the homes of Americans and the 40 million who are believed to suffer from the condition. It’s running several spots that repeat the tagline: “Qulipta can help prevent migraine attacks.”
The first spot focuses on normal day-to-day tasks that would be stopped by a migraine attack: a woman working in an office, a mother at home with her child and a man going on a first date.
It’s a 45-second spot, but each segment is filled with a narrator and accompanying text: “Qulipta can help prevent migraine attacks,” with a secondary tagline also coming through: "It can’t prevent stress" (at work); "the weather" (when the kid wants to play outside, but it’s raining); "it can’t help lack of chemistry on a first date."
But while it “can’t help what’s happening outside, it can prevent what’s happening inside,” the narrator intones. According to iSpot.tv, spend is running at $2.3 million for the past fortnight with nearly 1,000 airings.
It’s much the same with the second ad, with a secondary thread attached to different segments, but the same tagline and the same themes throughout. AbbVie has spent $1.4 million on that ad in the past two weeks, with more than 800 airings.
The Qulipta launch is going well for AbbVie: A new report out from analysts at Spherix shows that it is catching up with first-to-market Nurtec ODT, the Biohaven migraine drug that is FDA-approved to both treat and prevent migraines. AbbVie also sells Botox for preventing migraine, a legacy product from its Allergan buyout.
And AbbVie markets Ubrelvy as a migraine treatment, which has its own major ad campaign, including one ad with its spokesperson and tennis star Serena Williams. Ubrelvy made just over $500 million last year, and both Ubrelvy and Qulipta are in line to make more than $1 billion a year apiece at peak.
AbbVie has traditionally gone all-in on TV ads, regularly being a top 10 spender, with its blockbuster immunology powerhouse Humira taking the top spot for a number of years, according to iSpot.tv data.
Humira recently ceded this crown to Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent as AbbVie pivots ad spending to its newer immunology meds. With Humira biosimilars looming next year, the company purposefully shifted its TV dollars toward plaque psoriasis therapy Skyrizi and arthritis drug Rinvoq, which are now regularly in the top TV ad spends each month.
AbbVie's main Qulipta rival, Nurtec, sees much less spend on its ads, and that’s no surprise, given that Biohaven is a much smaller company with smaller budgets. The company has instead tapped social and digital media, as well as high-end celebs, to get its message out—so far to great success.
Nurtec’s main TV spot, “Put Migraine Behind You,” shows a young woman driving in a top-down car, not having to wear sunglasses against the bright sun—a potential migraine trigger. In the ad, Biohaven goes heavy on the fact that it’s the only drug FDA-approved to both treat and prevent migraine.
Here's AbbVie's first Qulipta spot, "Prevent Migraine Attacks."