• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 6, 2007

In what is proving to be one of Madison Avenue's most volatile advertising categories this year, another major pharmaceutical marketer has shaken up its media planning and buying, ending a 30-year relationship with one shop and consolidating its business at another. Abbott Laboratories, the Illinois-based marketer of prescription drugs, medical products and nutritional supplements like Ensure and Similac, has wrapped up a nearly two-year long review, pulling a portion of its roughly $200 million media account from Interpublic's Initiative North America unit and is expected to announce as soon as today that it has gone to one of the other two finalists: Publicis' MediaVest or Zenith North America units.

The decision comes less than two months after Initiative picked up another major drug marketer, Bayer's $400 million-plus consumer care division, and as it participates in a global media account review for an even bigger one - Johnson & Johnson - along with sister Interpublic agency Universal McCann.

While it's unclear how the Abbott move will factor into the J&J review, the decision appears to remove at least one potential conflict for Interpublic at a time when Initiative has otherwise been on a strong role with a new management team and a new business streak that includes planning and/or buying assignments from CBS, Showtime, Gateway, Lionsgate Films and Big Lots!, in addition to Bayer over the past 12 months.

An Abbott spokesperson was unable to confirm the winning agency at presstime, and representatives from MediaVest and Zenith were unavailable for comment, but Zenith was the other major incumbent in the pitch. Initiative had handled broadcast buying and some of Abbott's planning assignments.

In an unrelated piece of business, Abbott assigned its estimated $15-20 million corporate advertising and media buying account to WPP's Grey Advertising unit.