Diabetes patients can be a target for chronic kidney disease but can also take aim back: This is the message from AstraZeneca’s new Farxiga TV ad, which is pushing the drug’s new CKD label.
There is nothing splashy here. No celebrity endorsements, just patients in the crosshairs. We see two people and their dog sitting next to a water feature in a park, but then we zoom out and see that the whole park is made up of concentric circles, showing the people as the target.
“If you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, you’re a target for chronic kidney disease,” says the narrator. “You could already have it and not know it.” The solution? “Take aim” at chronic kidney disease itself by taking Farxiga.
Some 37 million people in the U.S. have CKD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And AstraZeneca says only around 10% have likely received a diagnosis.
There is “very low awareness among patients about this disease,” explained Sarah Walters, VP of U.S. CVRM at AstraZeneca. But low awareness is a serious issue for a disease that can lead to the need for dialysis if untreated.
“Early diagnosis is key,” she said, and the ad will go some way to help patients and doctors become more aware of the disease. Diagnosis has been low, because there were no specific CKD treatments, according to Walters, who added, “That all changed with Farxiga,” which gained an FDA approval for CKD patients with or without CKD last April.
While Farxiga can be given to CKD patients without diabetes, AZ is focusing the ad on this patient population given their higher risk for CKD.
The first diabetes drug to nab a CKD approval was Johnson & Johnson with its SGLT2 challenger, Invokana, back in 2019. But Invokana is not approved for use in CKD patients without type 2 diabetes. Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s SGLT2 drug, Jardiance, may soon become another rival, but both are still awaiting data from its kidney disease outcomes trial, which are expected this year.
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AstraZeneca's Farxiga ad, which comes across as very serious with the use of a target and slightly menacing music as you pull out to reveal its shape, is a “call to action,” Walters said, and wants patients to “take aim” at the disease. “You are the target, but you can also target back.”
Alongside the TV spot, AZ is also running a “fully integrated media plan and [has] a digital footprint that complements the TV ad to ensure we find these patients," Walters explained. "It would be wonderful if we could get patients to ask their doctors about tracking eGFR [a biomarker for kidney health] and that if it is low, you should be talking to your doctor and developing an action plan."
The marketing strategy complements AstraZeneca's work with sales reps talking with doctors to help boost awareness, though the pandemic has certainly made things more difficult for them in the field. Much of the face-to-face interaction that would have happened in the pre-pandemic period will remain digital, with Zoom calls largely replacing physical visits, Walters said.
The ad will run for “at least the first half of this year,” Walters noted but wouldn't comment on how much AstraZeneca will spend. Typically, however, a Big Pharma would be spending tens of millions of dollars for that sort of run time for a TV ad.
CKD is a “space that it remains fully committed to,” Walters added. That’s no surprise, because this is a major market for AstraZeneca—and its rivals.
AstraZeneca’s drug was first approved to lower blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes all the way back in 2014. In the past two years, Farxiga has been adding label expansions in a bid to beef up the blockbuster.
Besides last year's CKD FDA approval, it also received a class-first nod in 2020 to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure regardless of whether they have diabetes. It made $2.15 billion in the first nine months of 2021, with full year sales expected to be released on Feb. 10.