A breast cancer diagnosis is devastating. To hear that it has metastasized takes that devastation to another level. Amgen’s “Moments that Matter” campaign for bone metastases drug, Xgeva (denosumab), features real patients talking about how bone metastases has affected their lives, but thanks to Xgeva they are still living it.
The current spots feature three different Xgeva users—Maggie, a dancer who was diagnosed in her early 20s; Karen, who’s featured with her husband and daughter and who's sunny disposition won’t let bone metastases stop her enjoying herself and helping her community; and Erica, who’s first thought, like many women, was, what does this mean for her child?
Patient and potential patient preferences are at the heart of the campaign, from the use of real people to how they are shown, even down to the media mix in which the spots are presented.
“We said, ‘we'll fly out to you and you take us through your journey,” Parth Shah, executive director marketing for U.S. oncology at Amgen, said.
“It led to kind of us exploring with them during the creative process —how would you want to tell it—would you want to stand up? Would you want to be around your family, would you want to go to your dance studio? We tried to really be authentic as to how they wanted to tell us and we let them guide it.”
In addition to Amgen’s dedicated website, the campaign can be found in different forms all over social media, with videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. There are also an unbranded educational resources on the Susan G. Komen website.
Shah says one of the things Amgen heard from patients is that they were never told about the chance of bone metastases after a breast cancer diagnosis and they all wish they had been armed with that knowledge.
Xgeva isn’t only for breast cancer bone metastases, but any solid tumor that have bone metastases, such as prostate cancer, and lung cancer as well as multiple myeloma. The consumer focus on breast cancer comes from the call for information from women themselves. For multiple myeloma, which of course is bone related, Amgen is focusing its efforts more at HCPs.
As for the response, it’s just what Amgen is hoping for with strong metrics and engagement on the website as well as searches.
“Importantly, what we hear, and what we're most proud of is that patients have come to us and said, ‘Hey, this has been really powerful for me, it led to a conversation with my daughter, it led to conversation with my doctor, or my family members.’“
Xgeva brought in $1.4 billion for Amgen last year, a healthy 6% increase on 2020 and its fourth biggest-selling drug.