• by Les Luchter , April 29, 2024

Patients can “Outnumber PAH” by developing a strong support team, advises an unbranded educational campaign launched by Merck against pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare, progressive disease in which high blood pressure in the lungs can result in limited physical activity, heart failure and reduced life expectancy. Merck says that some 40,000 people in the U.S. are living with PAH.

Through November, using a tagline of “With PAH, knowledge is power,” Merck is running paid social (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) and search ads to drive patients to an “Outnumber PAH” website that focuses on patient stories and offers various support resources. Creative was handled by Real Chemistry, with media buying from Team Frontier

The recommended support team should include a PAH specialist, which Merck defines as a cardiologist or pulmonologist who focuses on the diagnosis and management of PAH and “only sees people with PAH.”

While Merck tells Marketing Daily that the average person diagnosed with PAH is between 30 and 60 years old and twice as likely to be female than male, the ads have a broader target: “adult men and women in the U.S. with an interest in PAH and cardiovascular topics,” according to a spokesperson.

The campaign was developed in collaboration with three key PAH advocacy groups: PHAware, the National Scleroderma Foundation, and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, on whose website Merck has also placed an “Outnumber PAH” display ad.

While not mentioned in the “Outnumber PAH’ campaign, Merck has just launched a new PAH treatment, Winrevair. Just weeks after receiving FDA approval in late March, Merck is seeing an increasing number of prescriptions being written, with shipments already underway, Merck chairman and CEO Rob Davis told analysts during the company’s Q1 earnings call on Thursday. “We think this will be a gamechanger” in the PAH space, he said.

Chris Schott, analyst at JP Morgan, has tabbed Winrevair as a $3 billion to $4 billion business, according to reports.

The drug, for which Bristol Myers Squibb will receive licensing payments, is garnering “high interest from patient groups and a range of relevant prescribers,” Merck CFO Caroline Litchfield added during the earnings call.

Dr. Dean Y. Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said that Winrevair, which uses “a novel therapeutic option…marks a significant step towards our goal of transforming the treatment journey for many patients with PAH.”

Other PAH medications in the market include Johnson & Johnson’s Uptravi, Opsumit, and the recently approved Opsynvi, which combines Opsumit with United Therapeutics’ Adcirca. Merck itself also offers Adempas, in concert with Bayer.