• by Tanya Gazdik , June 1, 2007

The Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ and several health care professionals have written a letter asking PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, to investigate whether PhRMA member Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary drug company Centocor Pharmaceutical has violated the association's guidelines on prescription drug advertisements.

Centocor produced a 58-minute movie/documentary called "Innerstate" which features individuals with psoriasis, Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Those illnesses are treated by the company's drug, Remicade--but the drug name is not mentioned in the movie, which Centocor officials say is a "disease awareness" documentary.

The union counters, however, that Remicade's dominant market position and materials distributed at the screening suggest "Innerstate" is mainly to promote Remicade. The union also has submitted a complaint regarding the movie to the FDA.

With 85,000 members in six states, SEIU Local 32BJ is the largest property service workers union in the country. The union maintains a Web site that is critical of Centocor at centocorwatch.org/.

"We ask that PhRMA thoroughly investigate 'Innerstate' and Centocor's marketing of the movie and pursue all appropriate remedies that address the practices of its member Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Centocor," the letter to PhRMA states. Health care professionals signing the letter include Dr. Leonore Tiefer of the NYU School of Medicine.

"Centocor wants us to believe that its movie's only goal is to broaden the awareness of immune-related diseases," said Wayne McManiman, Local 32BJ district chair in Philadelphia, in a press release. "Yet, their literature distributed at a recent screening references Remicade by name and suggests a primarily promotional motive."

PhRMA's guidelines on direct-to-consumer marketing are aimed at television and print advertising, which it defines as a "a portion of television air time on broadcast or cable television that is bought by a company for the purpose of presenting information about one or more of the company's medicines." This definition should include movies like "Innerstate," the letter states.

Michael Parks, Centocor's vice president/corporate communications and executive producer of "Innerstate," tells Marketing Daily that the company plans to formally respond to the union's criticisms in a letter to PhRMA and the FDA early next week. Parks says Centocor did follow PhRMA and FDA guidelines in the process of creating the film.

PhRMA has already indicated that it doesn't feel it is appropriate to apply its guidelines--which were created with an eye toward traditional advertising such as a 30-second TV spot--to the documentary, Parks adds.

The union's criticisms of Centocor stem from a union dispute and the company's use of a third-party, non-unionized cleaning service, Parks says.

Centocor fully disclosed its role in the film by including the "Medication Guide for Remicade" in the DVD packaging, Parks says. The educational DVD is being distributed free to anyone who requests it, he adds.