“My number two does not look like a number two. I don’t know what to call it. Is there a number three?” So begins an ad in an aggressive AbbVie campaign to sell the disease of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) in order to sell AbbVie’s drug for it. EPI is characterized by frequent diarrhea; gas, bloating and stomach pain says the campaign whose pay off line is “Don’t Keep a Lid on It.” Creon, AbbVie’s drug to treat the hitherto almost unknown disease of EPI is priced at over $500 a prescription.
“Two-thirds of patients (66 percent) have never even heard of EPI and even more (78 percent) are not aware of the symptoms,” says an AbbVie press release to create “awareness” among patients and doctors. Search results for EPI bring you to AbbVie’s “Identify EPI” sites replete with quizzes and videos of people Just Like You. Even if you have never heard of the disease or don’t have all of its symptoms, you are a candidate for our expensive drugs says the shameless campaign.
