Takeda's ad campaign for Actos emphasizes its heart safety vs. competitor

OSAKA, Japan Takeda is conducting a new ad campaign aimed at showing the cardiovascular safety of its type 2 diabetes medication, Actos. This comes in response to the recent announcement made by the Food and Drug Administration that Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline’s type 2 diabetes medication would be labeled with a warning about heart-attack risks.

The ad will run in 82 daily newspapers and four weekly magazines in the next few weeks, including Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, People, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, according to Elissa Johnsen, manager of product public relations for Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America.

“Actos has been shown to lower blood sugar without increasing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke,” according to the ads. The message shows a purple ribbon saying Actos is the “#1 prescribed brand-name diabetes medication.”

Sales of Avandia in the U.S. have plunged by about 50 percent since May, when the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio tied it to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attacks in a study. Actos sales, on the other hand, have soared, making it the world’s best-selling diabetes pill and generating $1.87 billion in the six months ended Sept. 30.