GPhA Rebrands As AAM, Hopes To Change Tenor Of Drug Pricing Debate

How is the generic industry like Captain "Sully" trying to land a damaged plane in the Hudson River?

ORLANDO – Add the generic industry to the list of trade groups launching a marketing campaign in the hopes of convincing lawmakers and the public that its preferred solutions are the best ones to address concerns about high drug prices.

While the brand trade group PhRMA has titled its research-focused campaign "Go Boldly", the generic group's effort may be bolder still – changing the entire name of the organization from the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) to the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM). The rebranding is accompanied by an education marketing campaign focused on patient stories describing how generics and biosimilars are "Keeping Medicines Within Reach".

AAM's CEO Chip Davis said that "despite the overall deflationary generic market, which is evident up and down the entire supply chain – you don’t believe me, ask the wholesalers – in many instances generics have been painted as part of the problem alongside the brand and specialty sectors."

The association’s new identity aims to improve recognition that “our medicines drive savings, not costs, and we stand ready to work with the President, Congress, patient groups and others to create real and lasting health cost solutions,” Davis told attendees at the group's annual meeting.

The Feb. 14 roll-out of the new name was tightly choreographed, with the association's logo transforming on screen as Davis spoke and signage being replaced in the exhibit hall while attendees heard the presentation in a ballroom. Association email addresses also switched from gphaonline.org to accessiblemeds.org, and staff had been hesitant to send email in the morning for fear of revealing the name change.

The campaign also includes a hashtag-for-swag component. As attendees left the presentation of the association's changed name, they were offered AAM logoed T-shirts and water bottles in exchange for tweeting using the new branding.

Getting Lumped In With Brand Drugs

The fact that the generic industry – which many in health policy circles already see as the source of inexpensive medicines – feels the need to rebrand itself in the middle of a national debate on drug pricing could be seen as a point of frustration, but the name is not synonymous with savings in the way that the group wants it to be.

Davis pointed to remarks by President Trump suggesting that he wants to drive down drug prices. (Also see "Carrots and Stick: Biopharma At The White House" - Pink Sheet, 31 Jan, 2017.)

"While some may presume that President Trump's invective was aimed solely at the brand industry with whom he was meeting a couple of weeks ago, we need to realize that he and others don’t necessarily distinguish between the brand and generic sectors," he said.

"And if you need proof of that, take a look at what’s happened just since the end of last week with the new treatment for Duchenne that was approved on Thursday," Davis said.

Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC received clearance for Emflaza (deflazacort), a corticosteroid that had never been approved in the US but was still often used to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The firm priced it at $89,000 a year, but then paused the launch after intense criticism. (Also see "Amid Pricing Criticism, Marathon 'Pausing' Emflaza Launch" - Scrip, 13 Feb, 2017.)

"This was a drug that got orphan status. When it was first reported by some of the media on Friday, it was classified as a generic drug. There’s your evidence," Davis said.

"So when the President says ‘they are getting away with murder,’ … he didn’t draw any distinctions between the brand and generic market. Let’s also keep in mind the external environment within which we’ve been operating. For the past 12 to 15 months, public opinion polls have consistently shown a large majority of Americans – Republicans, Democrats, independents – nearly 70% believe that prescription drug pricing is a foremost healthcare policy issue, if not the foremost policy issue, facing the nation that they want policy makers at the federal and state level to address."

The news media "have clearly responded to and helped stimulate this concern, leading to stories about extraordinary price increases," Davis said. "And while many of these stories have dealt with branded or older off-patent products, not all of them have, and as such our industry has been more than brought into the pricing debate, and has received more than its fair share of scrutiny," Davis argued.

Well Positioned, But In Crisis

Hence the need for a dramatic move to change the tenure of the debate. Generic firms have always prided themselves on offering the least expensive medicines available, yet in the middle of the most intensive pricing debate in years, they seem unable to get policy makers to embrace their message.

The industry is well positioned yet still in the middle of a crisis, so it seems fitting that one of the first speakers at the annual meeting was Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, the airline pilot who safety landed a damaged plane on the Hudson River.

Sullenberger talked about how his extensive work on aviation safety and crew dynamics had prepared him for having both engines lose power after flying into a skein of geese, but he noted in a sense there was nothing that could have prepared him for the event; flight simulators that pilots trained on did not include water landing scenarios since there was so little data on how to do it successfully.

In the same vein, there is no precedent for the Trump presidency – or even the effort to repeal Obamacare. And while Davis will be judged on more than 208 seconds of crises management like Sullenberger was, the challenge is also without template.

One approach AAM is taking is to use a strategy from the brand-industry playbook and forge connections with patient groups. The annual meeting included a panel discussions with representatives talking about how affordability was important to their communities.

A Jaunty Logo

Out with the old...

...and in with the new

The new AAM logo employs a playful, lower-case font that would seem at home in a Schoolhouse Rock video. Negative space between the second A and the M creates the impression of a capsule.

While the GPhA acronym with its lower-case "h" could be seen to be of a piece with PhRMA's branding, the generic association's new name is similar to its European counterpart. In March, the European Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association became Medicines for Europe with the tag line "Better access. Better health."

AAM will use the tag line "Your Generic & Biosimilars Industry."

Board Of Directors Expanded

In conjunction with the new name, AAM will have a new governance structure, implemented under the direction of incoming board chairman Jeff Watson, Apotex Inc.'s president of global generics, who led the governance committee last year.

"Now, all regular members of the association have a seat at the board of directors table," Davis noted. For fees, "we replaced a tier-based model with a percentage of US generics revenue." The changes will "enhance our effectiveness and increase the level of engagement across our membership," he said.

"These governance changes move us far along the path to becoming a best-in-class trade association and will position us more effectively to deploy both our financial and our human resources to meet the challenges that lie ahead," Davis said.

As part of the enhancements, "for the first time, GPhA hired and retained its own inside legal counsel in Jeff Francer," who, like Davis, is a PhRMA alum. (Also see "GPhRMA? Generic Trade Group Picks Up Another Exec From Brand Association" - Pink Sheet, 24 Oct, 2016.)