GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) released its second quarter earnings statement on July 25, 2007. They reported that sales of over-the-counter alli hit $155 million since the drug's launch of June 14. This means that sales of alli have already exceeeded the $150 million that GSK spent on its huge promotional campaign for the drug.
Readers of this blog know that we here at Prescription Access Litigation gave one of our coveted Bitter Pill Awards to GSK for the marketing of alli: The “With Allies Like This, Who Needs Enemas?” Award. We criticized GSK for irresponsibly marketing alli as an over-the-counter drug, removing the supervision of a physician from what used to be a prescription-only drug (known as Xenical), creating the risk that the drug will be used inappropriately and even abused, particularly by teenagers and people with eating disorders.
These earnings reports once again demonstrate that aggressive drug marketing can drive significant sales. Alli is perhaps one of the best examples of that -- who would have thought that a drug that causes diarrhea, oily spotting, oily stools, flatulence with discharge, and fecal urgency could be a success? The presentation that GSK released on the earnings report states that alli had "Over 2.4 billion media impressions since approval - eclipsing recent OTC launches" and that the alli website has received 4.5 million visits with an average visit time of around 10 minutes.
Time will tell whether GSK's sales will continue upward. No doubt there was a rush of people trying the drug because of the hype surrounding its launch, and it's likely that side effects and disappointing results (which GSK has the gall to refer to as "treatment effects") will discourage a good number of those who tried it from continuing. But GSK has already recouped its marketing costs, so any additional sales at this point are pure profit.
The danger is that the success of alli will encourage other drug companies to try to convert prescription-only drugs to over-the-counter status. As we said in a recent Ask Pharmie column,
For many, if not most, of the OTC drugs that are at your local pharmacy, there is no problem with them being available without a prescription: their risks or side effects are low, how to use them is clear, they treat things that patients can easily recognize, they give the consumer greater choices, etc.But not every drug should be “self-prescribed” nor should every condition be “self-medicated.” Many diseases and conditions require a physician to diagnose them in the first place, and then to monitor them and select the right medication. For many complicated diseases, a doctor needs to occasionally change the dosage of a drug or even what drug is given, and to monitor for side effects or complications. Conditions like high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma are not good candidates for making the drugs to treat them available Over-the-Counter.
Several years ago, the FDA rejected an application to make a prescription-only statin for high cholesterol available over the counter. But the approval of alli raises the question of whether the FDA will be more lenient in reviewing these applications. So-called "Rx-to-OTC switches" have long been part of the strategy used to preserve sales when brand-name drugs lose their patents (such as with Claritin and Prilosec). Hopefully in the wake of recent drug safety scandals, the FDA will be more stringent in its review of these requests. But the approval of alli doesn't bode well for that.