Pfizer To Launch Ad Campaign for Prescription Drug Discount Program
Pfizer on Monday plans to launch a nationwide advertising campaign to increase awareness about a program that allows uninsured U.S. residents to purchase prescription drugs manufactured by the company at a discount or receive them at no cost, the Detroit News reports. Although Pfizer launched the program, called Pfizer Helpful Answers, in 2004, only a small percentage of eligible participants have enrolled.
Under the program, individuals without prescription drug coverage who have annual incomes less than $19,000 and families that have annual incomes less than $31,000 can receive Pfizer medications at no cost from physician offices, health centers and hospitals. Families without prescription drug coverage that have annual incomes between $31,000 and $45,000 can receive average discounts of 37% on Pfizer medications, and those that have annual incomes higher than $45,000 can receive average discounts of 15%.
The ad campaign will include television ads that will air on cable stations nationally 100 times weekly, print ads and fliers, as well as meetings with community leaders nationwide. "We want to reach as many people as we can," Andrea Bevacqua, who administers the program, said. According to the News, the ad campaign represents part of a Pfizer effort to "quiet criticism of consumer drug advertising" (Terlep, Detroit News, 8/22).