AstraZeneca wants lupus patients to expect more—more from their treatment and more from their lives.
The drugmaker’s “Here for More” DTC campaign for Saphnelo, the first new systemic lupus drug to hit the market in a decade, drives home that message with a video featuring people seizing simple life moments.
It opens with upbeat music and two women joyfully embracing in what appears to be a reunion. We then see them laughing as they share a meal al fresco. “Lupus may have kept me away in the past,” the narrator says, “but today, I’m so here.”
Ditto for the three friends, all smiles, who are heading out for a bike ride on a sunny day, and for the mom catching butterflies with her kids during a picnic in the park.
With Saphnelo, the narrator says, you can “show up and really be there.” This has become a typical motif among pharma ads this year: The idea that a patient can return to normality, and to being a person, no longer defined simply as a patient.
AstraZeneca said in an interview that the messaging for its ad stems from insights gleaned through patient interviews and social listening as it geared up to launch the first-in-class type1 interferon blocker, which won FDA approval last August to treat adults with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
SLE is the most common form of lupus affecting more than 300,000 in the U.S. Although the disease affects everyone differently, most patients pointed to exhaustion as one of the most life-altering symptoms, said Krista Socha, AZ’s executive marketing director for immunology.
“This disease just steals their energy and prevents them from fully engaging in relationships,” she explained. The campaign aims to inspire them to “expect more from their treatment," so they can live fuller lives, she said, tapping into another piece of market research showing 70% of lupus patients are seeking better treatment options.
The ad also plays up the idea that Saphnelo works across different parts of the body. Using green dots to show it works “here, here and here,” it highlights the various organs and bodily systems lupus is known to attack, such as the brain, joints and digestive system.
“Here for More” is AZ’s first DTC effort for Saphnelo and includes online video and social media ads to reach lupus patients “where they are spending time,” Socha said, with a goal of reaching 95% of the patient population this year.
The drugmaker laid the groundwork for its DTC marketing last year by working with patient advocacy groups to build a patient support program for the therapy. Since lupus disproportionately affects Black, Hispanic and Asian women, AZ sought help from those communities to design the program and has made diversity a key component of its latest messaging.
In interviews with patients after seeing the latest spot, 98% said they would talk to their HCP about Saphnelo, “so we knew we had something they really connected with,” Socha said.
The drug is going up against GlaxoSmithKline’s more established Benlysta, which won FDA approval in 2011 and inhibits B-cell activating factor. Ahead of Saphnelo’s approval, GSK rolled out its own “Sorry Lupus” campaign last summer, its first-ever DTC ads for Benlysta, looking to cement its lead in the SLE space.
To differentiate itself, AZ has been touting Saphnelo’s role in blocking excessive interferon, a driver of lupus disease activity which is present in up to 80% of patients. AZ believes the drug has blockbuster potential and that there’s plenty of room for both drugs in the market.