Promius Pharma is out with a new PSA on migraines, building on its ongoing campaign to help migraine sufferers recognize the many different types of migraine symptoms.
The new TV, radio, digital and social media work features a neurologist and real patient discussing the “more than” headache pain symptoms that accompany migraines, including nausea, light and sound sensitivity, and tingling or numbness.
The PSA is part of Promius’ “No Time 4 Migraines” disease awareness campaign, which kicked off last year. That initial effort focused around the creation of a set of migraine monsters with names like Abruptosaur and Rise N’ Whine to represent different kinds of symptoms. The campaign website encourages people to hashtag their “monster” migraine experiences on social media; it also includes checklists for sufferers and, in the treatment options section, a link that goes out to the home page of Promius’ injectable migraine drug Zembrace SymTouch, which was approved last year to treat acute migraines.
“A lot of patients think that migraine is a single pain, that you get the same kind of attack all of the time, and that the treatment the doctor prescribes works for all migraines,” Harshal Deshpande, director at Promius Pharma, said in an interview. “We’re trying to raise awareness around the fact that migraines manifest in a variety of different forms. All attacks are not equal.”
Promius is a wholly owned subsidiary of India's Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and, along with Zembrace, has six more migraine treatments in the pipeline, including a nasal spray. The company is not alone in the growing and competitive space. The migraine category, in fact, is expected to swell in the next few years with a new generation of migraine drugs—CGRP inhibitors that prevent the headaches from starting—in the pipeline from Allergan, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Teva and Alder Biopharmaceuticals.
The Promius campaign targets both patients and professionals with online education and marketing, including Facebook and Twitter efforts aimed at patients, and healthcare events and educational materials to reach doctors, Deshpande said.
“With some of these symptoms, patients don’t understand the variability of their own disease as much as they just think the medicine is just not working,” he said. "Now we have some reach and connectivity with a lot of organizations in this ecosystem of migraine and neurology, so now is the time to connect the dots and raise awareness."