One Of The Stupidest Cancer Drug Commercials Ever
There appears to be lots of commercials for medications to treat cancer and currently, there is one for a drug called Verzenio. The commercial says that Verzenio is for POST MENOPAUSAL women with metastatic breast cancer with certain receptors. At about 40 seconds into the commercial, it begins with warnings about what the drug might cause.
Then it enters into stupidity. The commercial actually says to tell your doctor if you are pregnant, breast feeding, or plan to become pregnant. WHAT?!? Does whomever wrote the commercial know what post menopausal means? I actually did a rewind 5 times to make sure I heard the commercial first say that the drug is for post menopausal women.
Posted on 01/20/2019, in cancer and tagged breast cancer, stupid commercial, Verzenio. Bookmark the permalink. 26 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
Pharmaceutical commercials have gotten out of hand…. “If your penis is curved due to injury during intercourse, you may have Peroni’s Disease or PE”. Ask your doctor about PE.
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Ray, I saw one of those commercials and wondered how many men jumped on Google to find out about Peroni’s Disease. Then of course, the doctor is most likely to tell them to not believe what they read on the internet.
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Like people with Apple watches going to the ER in droves because they think they have atrial fibrillation.
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Ray,
I’m unfamiliar with that one and had to look it up. Seems like there is a study being conducted and Apple and Stanford U. are looking for participants.
https://med.stanford.edu/appleheartstudy.html
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The Apple Watch has an app that you can take a single lead ekg with. It’s well advertised and it appears anytime the app tells you your rhythm is off, people are racing to the emergency room only to find its a false slam
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Ray,
So it seems that Apple has opened a can of worms with that app. I wonder how long it will take before they are sued for ER bills?
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Oh God! Incredible. Sending you my thoughts and prayers.
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Cindy,
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, dear friend. They are working.
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Yep, for people with Masters degrees and Ph.D.s who designed this ad, who supposedly understand what the drug does, they seem pretty stupid. But then … my respect for the medical community, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, has long since vanished.
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Jill, last week I saw a commercial for a workout gym that misspelled “judgement”. I wanted to write the company and tell them that it’s not a compound word and there is no “e” after the “g”. I might still do that.
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You should! That is one word I usually spell wrong, BUT … spell check puts that squiggly line under it, so I know to correct it. Surely these ad execs have spell check??? Sheesh.
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Jill,
It’s pretty common to see it misspelled, and I don’t usually get upset about it when seeing it misspelled, but for a commercial? It’s a business, and they should hire advertising companies with qualified personnel. Only, in this neck of the woods, they are more than likely to hire a relative or friend with absolutely no experience. A big thing in this neck of the woods is to see companies advertise being family owned. There’s one company who put their little son in the commercial and you can barely understand what he says.
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So very professional, eh? The lack of diligence and attention to detail might just make me question whether the product itself is reliable.
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The makers of Verzenio have a Twitter account where they posted the following;
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Dear Xena,
They probably did that Ad for doctors who are sometimes missing the gene that has them check out drugs on their PDRs before prescribing them to patients.
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Drear Xena,
I’ve noticed that these drugs that are advertised have one thing in common. They are all super expensive. That Verzenio oral table at t 50 mg costs around $2,953 for a supply of 14 tablets, depending on the pharmacy you visit. If you go line, there are coupons.
In 2013, to treat PE, Xiaflex costed only $3,300 an injection, so a full course of eight injections would cost about $26,000, in addition to doctor’s fees. But the website tells customers that Health insurance will cover this.
Then the lawmakers in Washington DC wonder why the cost of health insurance keeps rising.
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda,
You are so right about the costs of prescription drugs. When I was prescribed Xarelto, the prescription was filled at the hospital’s pharmacy. They had coupons so I had nothing to pay for the “Starter Pack”. Afterwards, it cost me $47.00. Last week, I received a “summary” from the insurance company of prescriptions, what they paid, and what I paid. What I paid $47.00 for actually cost over $400.00. My mouth dropped open. It caused me to wonder how people who do not have prescription coverage can afford it. It’s not as if they can decide to not get the medication when all the information is geared to scare the life out of patients with DVT’s.
The cost of Verzenio doesn’t surprise me. One chemo treatment that I received consisted of 2 drugs, and it cost over $37,000.00. Since I met my annual out-of-pocket expenses, I am not responsible for the 2% copay. What really concerns me is that medications to treat cancer have very ugly side-effects, some of which result in more needed medical treatment and in my case, also a hospital admission. So, the patients who are paying almost $3,000 for Verzenio might also have to pay for treatment to get their blood cell counts up, not to mention over-the-counter products for diarrhea and pain.
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Gronda,
You know, I thought about that, but if they wanted to protect their credibility, they should not have started the commercial by saying the medication is for “post menopausal women”. It’s not only their PDR’s but also patients’ records. Clearly on my record is that I cannot take Tramodol. It gives me horrible headaches. When I was in the hospital I had an unbelievable headache. It had not been long since the nurse injected a pain killer. I asked the nurse for a cold towel for my head. Then, on the board in my room where they put the names of staff, diagnosis and medications, there was “Tramodol” listed for pain.
I didn’t say anything because I felt it would lead into trying to reason for why a benign brain tumor is not on my record after I gave my now former oncologist the radiologist’s report from 2007 and he had me undergo a brain CT scan. Evidently, he did not add it to my medical record. I was so traumatized (and still am) by that doctor’s negligence and lack of empathy that I didn’t want to make myself more upset. Tramodol is not to be prescribed to patients with brain tumors. I felt it was sufficient to put on my medical record that I cannot take Tramodol due to it giving me headaches.
I got out of bed, went to the board, and erased “Tramodol”. For the next 3 days until my discharge, no staff noticed that no pain medication was on the board.
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I just watched an Ibrance ad. Also for post-menopausal women. ‘Please tell your doctor if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant.’ What? I’m curious to find that post-menopausal pregnant woman out there. 🤣
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Jennifer, those commercials are amazing, aren’t they? Unless the patient’s name is Sarah and her husband is Abraham, I’ve not heard of a woman who is post menopausal planning on becoming pregnant. 🙂
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Hey Xena,
The commercials are interesting in the way they are worded. They are likely worded this way because while the drugs were created for post menopausal women, they are also prescribed to women who aren’t technically post menopausal but are clinically post menopausal (i.e. the woman was given a medication to make her post menopausal so that she can take this drug.) So they need to know if she is pregnant or plans to become pregnant because she technically can prior to taking the meds or if failing to take the meds to send her into menopause.
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Hi IMC321. I see that you just opened your blog. Congratulations!
I’m not understanding because regardless of the reason for being post menopausal, it means the woman no longer has the ability to become pregnant. The word “post” is operative. There are chemo drugs that can trigger menopause, but that is actual chemotherapy and not pills to delay the spread of metastatic breast cancer. In my opinion, the manufacturer should have advertisement that doesn’t make it appear ignorant.
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Thanks for the Congrats and the response.
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You are welcomed. (((((Hugs)))))
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I Never believed i was ever going to be HIV Negative again,Dr OWo has given me reasons to be happy, i was HIV positive for 2years and all the means i tried for treatment was not helpful to me, but when i came on the Internet i saw great testimony about Dr OWo on how he was able to cure someone from HIV, this person said great things about this man, and advice we contact him for any Disease problem’ well i decided to give him a try, he requested for my information which i sent to him, and he told me he was going to prepare for me a healing portion, which he wanted me to take for 4days,and after which i should go back to the hospital for check up, well after taking all the treatment sent to me by Dr owo i went back to the Hospital for check the 5th day of it the doctor check me up again and said i have been confirmed HIV Negative, then I can’t even believe I still went to other hospitals for check up it was also confirmed that I am cure from HIV friends you can reach him on any treatment for any Disease he is the one only i can show you all up to, contact:
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Munkdamgaard101,
I am approving your comment with an edit that removed the contact information you included. Evidently, you’re not in the U.S. Here, we cannot go from hospital to hospital for check-ups. In fact, we go to clinics or doctor offices for check ups and only if they are in our insurance network. While I get the impression that your comment was intended to inform readers about Dr. Owo because of your once being HIV positive, I find it rather disrespectful to my post which is about breast cancer. HIV is treatable in the U.S. People are living a long time with HIV, but that’s not true for cancer patients with progressive, untreated cancer. In a way, your comment lacks understanding and empathy of the subject matter.
I also find your comment non informative because you make no mention as to the location of Dr. Owo. It is my strong opinion that people with cancer are not going to travel the world for non conventional treatment unless they are super rich and believe they have time to continue living and getting traditional treatment just in case the non conventional method does not work. Have you read what happened with Steve Jobs?
Please think on these things before submitting comments to blogs in an effort to promote non traditional treatment for progressive cancers. Thank you.
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