PharmaGuy's Favorite Memes

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Pharma Memes

PHARMAGUY’S FAVORITE MEMES


Pharma Memes

WHAT IS A MEME?

The original, pre-internet definition of a meme is, “an element of a culture on system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, especially imitation”.

Today, the “element of culture” is often an image or photo that has spread through social media or texting and which has been modified to include overlaid text. At least, that is how my son defines meme.

Most memes are funny, witty, clever, or snarky.

Over the years I have created numerous memes that I hope will be copied and passed on from one pharmaceutical marketer to another. This PowerPoint presentation includes many of my favorite memes and some insights on why I created them.

Most of these memes have to be viewed in context of the news and events that inspired them. So for each one, I provide links back to the original social media post in which they appeared. Hopefully that will provide the necessary context.

Enjoy and feel free to spread them through your social media channels!


Pharma Memes

YER TALKIN’ PISH, SAYS IAN READ

In a Forbes interview, Ian Read, Pfizer's CEO (an accountant, born in Scotland no less), was quoted as saying to employees: “I’m not going to talk about mission or vision. We’ve got to talk about imperatives.” Namely, cutting costs and pleasing share-holders.

“I understand the physicians saying, ‘Look, these prices are too high,’ ” Read says. But according to Read, these physicians−to use an old Scottish phrase−are talking' pish! “It’s because their patients can’t get access. That is an insurance issue,” says Read.

Read insisted drug companies don’t make undue profits. He points out that, in terms of return on capital or return on assets, pharma is just average.http://bit.ly/1VVWLUl


Pharma Memes

THE “THREE STOOGES” OF DRUG PRICE LOBBYING

Consumers are mad as hell about high drug prices. In response, the nation’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), pharmaceutical companies (Pharma), and Pharmacies are all descending on Washington to lobby and blame each other for the problem.

This was reported in the NYT, which charac-terized it as a “civil war.” Chester Davis, the president of the Association for Accessible Medicines, likened it to a famous three stooges photo, which I found for this meme. I also included the wolf image from a PR piece handed out by pharmacists to lawmakers. In that piece, the wolf represents PBMs, which pharmacists blame for high drug prices. I thought it would better represent the “mad as hell” consumers who do not think it’s funny!

http://sco.lt/4huQbp

http://sco.lt/4huQbp


Pharma Memes

A PHARMA CEO’S TORTURED LOGIC

At the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ian Read, CEO of Pfizer said:

“We need to pay more for medicine so we can develop more good medicine, so we can drive, through competition, lower costs.”

Later in the year, it was discovered that Pfizer raised prices of 31 drugs by as much as 28%! See the next slide.

At Davos, Read also claimed the drug industry isn’t getting away with murder, as Trump claimed (http://sco.lt/59Phsf). http://sco.lt/5jRt3Z

http://sco.lt/59Phsf

http://sco.lt/5jRt3Z


Pharma Memes

PFIZER’S DICK MOVE ON DRUG PRICES

When I learned that Pfizer raised the price of Viagra by 28% in 2017, I just had to create this meme. Get it? Dick, Viagra?

In fact, Pfizer raised the price of 91 drugs an average of 20% in 2017 when several other companies have pledged to keep yearly drug price increases below 10%.

Ian Read, Pfizer CEO, is depicted in this meme because he famously said he won’t commit to keeping a lid on drug prices. In fact, he went further and said "We need to pay more for medicine so we can develop more good medicine, so we can drive, through competition, lower costs” (http://sco.lt/5jRt3Z).

http://sco.lt/5VHAjh


http://sco.lt/5VHAjh


Pharma Memes

PHARMA BROS

Even before Forbes compared Mylan CEO Heather Bresch to “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli(http://sco.lt/5Iy70b), I saw a similarity between a major pharma CEO – Pfizer’s Ian Read – to Shkreli and decided to create this meme to point out that Big Pharma is more like Shkreli than it likes to admit (http://sco.lt/8WpLXt).

http://sco.lt/5Iy70b

http://sco.lt/8WpLXt


Pharma Memes

PHARMA SIBS

Drug price gouger Martin Shkreli is known as “Pharma Bro” because of his propensity for wearing hoodies and hanging out with rappers. Soon after, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch was dubbed “Pharma Sis” by a Forbes contributor for raising the price of EpiPen 400% over several years. I immediately coined “Pharma Sibs” in this meme to highlight the defense offered by these disgraced CEOs (http://sco.lt/5Iy70b).

http://sco.lt/5Iy70b


Pharma Memes

“GO COPULATE WITH YOURSELF!”

When midlevel Mylan executives suggested that Epipen’s price increases were unethical profiteering at the expense of sick children, Mylan’s chairman Robert Coury raised both his middle fingers and explained, “using colorful language, that anyone criticizing Mylan, includ-ing its employees, ought to go copulate with themselves. Critics in Congress and on Wall Street, he said, should do the same. And regulators at the Food and Drug Administration? They, too, deserved a round of anatomically challenging self-fulfillment.”

http://sco.lt/86sAk5

http://sco.lt/86sAk5


Pharma Memes

IT’S DTC HUNTING SEASON!

When Bob Ehrlich, Chairman of DTC Perspectives, referred to critics of Direct-to-Consumer drug advertising as “DTC Hunters,” I immediate-ly thought of Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny, arguably the most famous brand name rabbit in the world!

http://sco.lt/7f0TC5

http://sco.lt/7f0TC5


Pharma Memes

WHAT IT TAKES TO MOTIVATE BABY BOOMERS

When Gilead came out with a new “Direct-to-BabyBoomer” (DTB) campaign to give sales of its Hep C vaccine a shot in the arm, they touched a raw nerve with at least one baby boomer – me!

One ad shows baby boomers lounging on bent trees and wandering aimless through the landscape as if they are in a trance and have nothing better to do! No doubt millennials are in charge of the storyboards for these ads and it's their way of getting back at their baby boomer parents!

http://sco.lt/9KSHIn

http://sco.lt/9KSHIn


Pharma Memes

DTC ADS RELIEVE RX CONSTIPATION

To keep Linzess sales moving like well-oiled bowels, Allergan and Ironwood have gone through several iterations of DTC campaigns, the last of which feature knots in the stomach of IBS related constipation sufferers. Of course, the knots are untied easily by Linzess!

http://sco.lt/6p807l

http://sco.lt/6p807l


Pharma Memes

PHARMA OVERUSES LETTER Z IN DRUG NAMES

Pharma loves Z. The letter Z accounts for 2.52% of all letters used in drug names. That's roughly 3,300% different than what would be expected (0.07%). Why? http://sco.lt/7YUQ1R

http://sco.lt/7YUQ1R


Pharma Memes

HOW PHARMA FEELS ABOUT FDA AD STUDIES

The FDA is in the process of conducting so many studies of DTC advertising that it is difficuylt to keep up with them all! I made an attempt in this SlideShare presentation: "Pharmaguy’s Gallery of FDA Studies of DTC Advertising”: http://bit.ly/DTCstudyGallery

http://bit.ly/DTCstudyGallery


Pharma Memes

TRUMP ON IMMIGRATION PHARMA

So true! http://sco.lt/7uV4YT

http://sco.lt/7uV4YT


Pharma Memes

PHRMA GOES TO WASHINGTON

I don’t want to compare Trump to Hitler, but I do want to compare Stephen Ubl, CEO of the Pharma-ceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the U.S. drug industry’s lobbying group and trade association, to Chamberlain who famously proclaimed “peace in our time” after getting assur-ances from Hitler. It is suspected that both made deals with the “devil” that later proved vacuous.

http://sco.lt/5bIagr

http://sco.lt/8CcWbB

http://sco.lt/5bIagr

http://sco.lt/8CcWbB


Pharma Memes

JOHN SCULLEY “TRANSITIONS” TO HEALTH CARE

This guy almost ran Apple into the ground. Now he wants to do the same for digital health working for RxAdvance remotely from his home in Palm Beach, Florida, where he undoubtedly hobnobs with friend and fellow Wharton classmate Donald Trump. http://sco.lt/7MODfV

http://sco.lt/7MODfV


Pharma Memes

PHRMA WANTS GOLD & GOT IT!

PhRMA’s CEO Stephen Ubl told STATnews:

“We believe that the FDA review process is the gold standard and should remain so.”

Meanwhile, the drug industry may be getting real gold from President Trump who has talked about giving drug companies a big tax break if they bring their wealth back to US shores.

http://sco.lt/6moIwD

http://sco.lt/6moIwD


Pharma Memes

THE NEW FDA COMMISH COULDV’E BEEN WORSE!

When Trump was considering who to nominate for the new FDA commissioner, several scary characters rose to the top of the list. One was Jim O’Neill, a managing director at Mithril Capital Management, a venture capital firm run by Peter Thiel, the billionaire Trump donor and transition team advisor. He is reported to have once said: “We should reform FDA so it is approving drugs after their sponsors have demonstrated safety and let people start using them at their own risk. Let’s prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized” (http://sco.lt/5jRt3Z).



Pharma Memes

HOW FDA PLANS TO REGULATE MHEALTH APPS

I’m a fan of HBO’s Silicon Valley series. So when a nerdy “policy advisor” to the FDA suggested that for the agency to move the needle on digital health less attention should be paid to compliance and more paid to “excellence,” I immediately though of “Big Head” who plays a wannabe nerd on the show.

The advisor’s solution is to not focus on reviewing the computer code of “trusted” companies, but essentially give them a free pass like the TSA does for certain air travelers.

http://sco.lt/6ua75F

http://sco.lt/6ua75F


Pharma Memes

THE PHARMA SALES REP AS WILLY LOMAN

When I began reading KevinMD’s blog post about the uselessness of pharma-ceutical sales reps in the modern world, my ears perked up. But when I got to the end I was surprised to learn that the renowned physician blogger seemed to advocating the FDA allow sales reps to promote off-label uses of drugs.

“Pharmaceutical detailing by reps is not very helpful,” he said, “it is scripted and based solely on what the FDA allows them to say (think on label vs. off label). Reps are not allowed to talk about upcoming trials or discuss any off-label applications.”

http://sco.lt/5pE37p

http://sco.lt/5pE37p


Pharma Memes

“DRUNK UNCLE” OFF-LABEL COMMUNICATIONS

In a bid to loosen off-label commun-ications, Representative Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) introduced legislation that would expand the ability of drug makers to discuss un-approved uses of their medicines with doctors.

The bill proposes some interesting definitions for scientific exchanges, such as distributing scientific findings in scientific or lay media.

“If companies can use letters to editors to market drugs, they might just as well draw on the opinions of SNL’s Drunk Uncle,” said Henry Greenspan, who co-founded Justice in Michigan, a non-partisan group that seeks state legislation to make it possible for residents to sue drug makers for harm caused by medicines (http://sco.lt/7kc8TR).

http://sco.lt/7kc8TR


Pharma Memes

POINT-OF-CARE ADVERTISING MAKES BILLIONS FOR COLLEGE DROPOUT

The point-of-care advertising market totals about $500 million. So how come the college dropout CEO of Outcome Health, which markets POC tablet advertising to the drug industry, is worth 7X that? The tablets are free to physicians but I’m sure pharma advertisers want to see some return on their investment. So docs better use them and use them often as this meme suggests. http://sco.lt/5k4p0L

http://sco.lt/5k4p0L


Pharma Memes

THANKS FOR VIEWING!

PharmaGuy's Favorite Memes

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