Bausch Health’s gastroenterology business arm, Salix, is using its new spot for Xifaxan to educate patients with cirrhosis of the liver about the risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE). Up to 80% of people with cirrhosis may develop some form of hepatic encephalopathy—either covert or the more advanced, overt.
The branded campaign for Xifaxan, “I Wish I Knew,” centers around Mark, an actual patient who after his 2016 liver disease diagnosis started exhibiting extreme personality changes. He went to the emergency room where a doctor diagnosed him with OHE.
The complication of severe liver disease is due to the damaged liver being unable to effectively clean toxins from the blood, and those toxins can travel to the brain causing OHE. Researchers found that while most liver disease patients don’t know this, they wish they did.
“We do a lot of work with patient advocacy groups, and we met Mark as part of our outreach through that,” Nicola Kayel, vice president for GI marketing at Salix, told Fierce Pharma Marketing.
“That was really the foundation behind using a real patient and allowing that patient to tell their story and their journey. We continue to do patient research, and we heard so many times ‘I wish I knew that my underlying liver condition could actually impact my brain.’ So that's what allowed us to come up to this concept and really revolve it around the theme of, I wish I knew.”
The spot, which is a first for OHE, will run on streaming services and other media channels, including digital ads, social media and on Xifaxan’s website.
“This is the first time we've been invested in a campaign like this. We're positive that it will resonate with our target audience … then we definitely will have future plans to keep this going,” Kayel said.
Xifaxan is one of the stars of Bausch’s portfolio alongside its constipation and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) drug Trulance, which was first approved in 2017. Xifaxan is not only used for OHE, but also in cases of IBS diarrhea. Bausch is fighting off the loss of some patents in this use, but so far the patents remain in OHE.