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| Allergan CEO Brent Saunders posted to his Instagram account about Khloé Kardashian's Kybella endorsement. |
One pharma has already chalked up 15 minutes of Kardashian-fueled fame. Now, another drugmaker has signed up for its turn in the family limelight.
Allergan ($AGN) has tapped Khloé Kardashian to help launch its double-chin treatment Kybella, and CEO Brent Saunders touted the partnership on Instagram last week.
"Khloe kicking off our Allergan campaign #shareLCU," Saunders wrote in a caption beneath a photo of Kardashian, who stands in a strapless black pantsuit in front of Kybella wallpaper at a campaign kickoff event.
Presumably, Allergan's Kybella team has made sure that Khloé knows how to follow the pharma rules if she mentions Kybella on Instagram herself. Her elder sister Kim landed in hot water with the FDA after talking up Duchesnay's morning sickness drug, Diclegis, last summer. The Canadian drugmaker was slapped with an FDA warning letter, and Kardashian had to issue a correction on Instagram to counter her earlier post.
At Allergan's Live Chin Up event last week, Khloé moderated a panel of experts who talked about how Allergan's injection can treat chin fat. "Khloé has a very good personal message because she's been so open about her own personal struggles with weight and relationships," Allergan's VP of Facial Aesthetics Marketing Colleen McKenna told FiercePharmaMarketing. "She lives her life in the public eye. We felt that her personality and who she is embodies the message of this campaign," McKenna said.
Allergan is putting a positive spin on chin fat as part of its Live Chin Up campaign. LiveChinUp.com includes an interactive presentation with a bearded host, Peter Mason, who tells viewers that "living chin up" is "more than a phrase; it's an attitude." "It's about not letting the things that bother you get in your way," Mason said.
The presentation then presents four boxes and gives viewers the option to click on one. Selecting a box which reads, "How can you Live Chin Up?" leads to a page that lists ways to stay positive and have a better attitude. Another box, "What is Submental Fullness," presents a tutorial on double chin fat. A "Live Chin Up in Action" box guides viewers toward social media channels including Facebook and YouTube.
Allergan is expecting big things from Kybella. The company last summer said it would shell out $2.1 billion for Kythera Biopharmaceuticals to get its hands on the treatment. The deal was meant to boost Allergan's facial portfolio, which includes products like Botox, Juvederm and Latisse.
Analysts seemed enthusiastic about the buyout at the time. "(D)eals like this validate a long-term growth thesis for Allergan," Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat said at the time. Allergan is shooting for compound annual growth of 10% for its branded drug business, and new launches could help the company deliver on this goal. Later this year, that growth would start to pay off for Pfizer ($PFE), which is acquiring Allergan in a $160 million deal.
- read the statement
- here's a link to Live Chin Up site
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Editor's note: This article was updated with a statement from Allergan.