AstraZeneca launched the first ever COVID drug DTC for its prevention antibody, Evusheld, and it’s one of the most unusual and unique commercials you will see this year.
The ad, which is set up more as a public health announcement (though is heavily branded), has a very different feel from most traditional pharma DTCs. There are no bright colors or emotional beats. You won’t find someone roller skating around a park, for instance, or someone running with their dog.
What you get instead is just one narrator, standing in a bland, empty, white office space, laying out informatively how Evusheld works, who it’s for and, instead of waiting for the end of the ad, explaining many of the potential side effects in the middle of the video.
The reason for this is that Evusheld is being used under an emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the FDA, handed out in December last year. This is not a full approval, and, while it allows for Evusheld's use in a public health emergency, it also restricts how much marketing AZ is allowed to do for the drug.
Evusheld’s EUA is designed for the roughly 2% of U.S. residents who are immunocompromised and have had COVID vaccines but need an extra boost to help shore up their immunity to the virus.
But it is not for those infected with the virus. This has caused some misunderstanding for patients, who may mix up this preventive drug for authorized treatments such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid, which is used to treat those early on in their infection.
This is why the very first line of the ad is emphasizing that “Evusheld is for prevention, before you are exposed to COVID.”
“What we know is when we talk to consumers and do research, and even talking to healthcare providers, is that there is confusion between treatment and prevention, especially for antibodies, as Evusheld is, because they have traditionally been used only for treating COVID,” said Andrew Leone, executive director of sales and marketing, U.S. vaccines and immune therapies, in an interview.
“So, what we’re really trying to do is to reframe that and make sure that individuals, consumers and doctors know that there is an option for prevention in Evusheld.”
Because of that EUA, AZ has had to tread carefully when it comes to balancing promotion over awareness. Leone expalined that the public service nature of the ad is intentional. "There are different guidelines we need to adhere to under an EUA [as opposed to a full approval],” he noted.
AZ had to work closely with patient advocacy groups as well as the U.S. government, the FDA and the agency's drug ad office the OPDP, which “did a review and provided feedback on the campaign,” explained Leone so that the Big Pharma could bring this ad out into the world. “We know that use of Evusheld in immunocompromised patients is actually lower than we would like,” Leone said.
He said when they tested the video, despite its length coming in at a long 90 seconds (most ads are 30 seconds), it “tested really well” in immunocompromised patients: “They understood and it spoke to them right away”, said Leone.
You won’t, however, be seeing this on prime time viewing like most TV ads. It will be shown through connected TV and online, as well as through the Evusheld website, but “it will not be at this stage on linear television,” Leone explained.
The focus is also not just on consumers but on doctors too. “There’s a balance in making sure consumers are aware of the drug, as well as supporting healthcare provider education.” AZ has its medical teams and all of its field teams engaged in discussions with certain specialists to raise awareness of Evusheld, which is complementary to the DTC.