Levemir, an insulin for T1 diabetes, is a prescription product and so communication is limited to health care professionals. This campaign targeted diabetes specialists, consisting of endocrinologists and GPs with a high interest and experience in initiating and intensifying insulin treatment for T1 diabetes patients. These healthcare specialists are in high demand, feeling over-burdened with their patient load, and so while they want to provide their patients the very best care, they also like to stick to what they know.

Australian Healthcare is highly regulated and prescription product promotion to consumers is not permitted. Medicines Australia sets marketing standards and complements government legislation. Companies must ensure claims are balanced, accurate, fully PI supported or by literature, ‘data on file’ or appropriate sourcing. Claims must be consistent with the Australian PI, irrespective of base source. This also relates to any information given about other products or disease states and the substantiation of taglines. All information, claims and graphics must be ‘current, accurate, balanced and not mislead directly, by implication, or by omission’. Claims must be referenced with specific art directional restrictions.

Levemir is a challenger brand with a very powerful rival that monopolises the category. It has a limited listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as an insulin treatment for Type 1 diabetes whereas its key competitor, Lantus, is PBS-listed for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. This gives Lantus a significant advantage as Type 1 makes up only 10% of the diabetes category. What difference does it make that the competitor is prescribed for both Type 1 and Type 2 whereas Levemir is not? Clinicians are spending much more time treating Type 2 patients and prescribing Type 2 brands so they become increasingly front-of-mind. This results in the unaided awareness and salience of Lantus providing a big advantage for the brand when it comes to clinicians making a decision about which drug to prescribe for Type 1. For every Type 1 patient a clinician sees they’ll see 7.5 Type 2 patients. Levemir was becoming the forgotten brand while Lantus was increasingly becoming synonymous with diabetes across both types of the disease. While in the 2011/12 financial year Lantus sales were $108.6m, Levemir sales in comparison were $14.8m, making Lantus 7.3 times larger. Levemir was David to the Lantus Goliath.