Healthcare Category Insights

Every month the FOX Portfolio & Solutions team will bring you strategic marketing intelligence, insights, and solutions that focus on your brand needs and marketplace trends. This month’s update focuses on the healthcare industry and shares some key findings on the latest research, what’s new in the industry and how your brands can break through with the power of the FOX Portfolio. Below you’ll find the Healthcare Category Insights Newsletter.

Category Outlook

Forecast & Drug Pipeline

MAGNA is forecasting Pharma total ad spend to grow +13% in 2021 and +5% in 2022. Ad budgets should be supported by continued growth in national health expenditures, which CMS is projecting to increase 5.4% on average for 2021-2023 and 5.6% for 2024-2028(1). In particular, CMS is forecasting higher spending on prescription drugs due to faster drug price increases, higher utilization and growth in spending on new drugs.

• Competition Growing: Nine of the industry’s top 20 drugs by sales are set to lose exclusivity over the coming years such as Abbvie’s Humira (2023) and J&J’s Stelara (2025) (2). On the positive side, the FDA has been dubbed more friendly as it has steadily increased the pace and frequency of approvals. Even amidst a pandemic, the FDA has approved 46 novel drugs in 2021 so far, close to last year’s near-record 53 new drugs (3).
• Streamlining Focus: Drug companies continue to shed their consumer health businesses, like J&J who announced plans to separate its consumer arm while retaining its higher-growth but less predictable pharma and medical-devices businesses. GSK and Pfizer are in the process of spinning off their consumer health joint venture, which is planned for mid-2022.

Pharma Sales & Ad Review

Pharma ad spend grew +17% YoY across all media during the first ten months of 2021, with prescription drugs reaching a new spending peak. Prescription drugs continued to drive category spend, accounting for about 90% of overall media dollars. TV spend was up +7% in the same period while digital jumped +32% (4).

• Immunology continues to be the largest TV category even as Humira, the industry’s top-selling drug and no. 1 advertiser, cut spend. Abbvie has been shifting its ad budget to its newer products, Rinvoq and Skyrizi, as Humira is set to lose exclusivity in January 2023.
• Sanofi’s eczema and asthma drug Dupixent, no. 2 TV spender, saw continued momentum and is on track to hit 5 billion euros in 2021 with a goal of 10 billion euros in annual sales.
• In the diabetes segment, Novo Nordisk’s Rybelsus overtook Eli Lilly’s Trulicity as the top advertiser, and Novo expanded its share of the GLP-1 diabetes market on Ozempic and strong uptake of the newer drug Rybelsus.
• In cancer, BMS’ Opdivo returned to TV following approval for additional indications while Merck’s Keytruda is still the leader in cancer immunotherapy and is projected to become world’s top-selling drug by 2023.

For Questions or more detail

Please contact the FOX Portfolio Strategy & Solutions team to help you with strategic marketing intelligence, insights and solutions.

STEPHANIE CHUA | Director, Portfolio Strategy & Solutions | stephaniekline.chua@fox.com

JEFF FOSTER | Senior Manager, Portfolio Strategy & Solutions | jeff.foster@fox.com

RISTEN CLARKE | Specialist, Portfolio Strategy & Solutions | risten.clarke@fox.com