THE WOODLANDS, TX: The period after hospitalization for heart failure can feel like a trip through the dark woods.
That’s the idea conveyed in a campaign from Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, which has submitted a drug, Sotagliflozin, for Food and Drug Administration approval to treat heart failure.
The campaign, Into the Dark, features a website with the title A Dark and Dangerous 30 Days For Heart Failure Patients Post Discharge.
The campaign does not mention Sotagliflozin. The company expects the FDA to approve the drug for heart failure in May, according to Jeffrey Wade, Lexicon president and CFO.
“This is about bringing attention to the unmet need for heart-failure patients, but it’s also about bringing attention to Lexicon as a company,” Wade said.
The campaign website features information on what the company describes as a “30-day danger zone” after hospitalization for heart failure. The campaign budget was not disclosed.
Almost a quarter of people hospitalized for heart failure are readmitted within 30 days, according to a study published in an American Heart Association journal.
The animation on the campaign website shows a darkened figure entering the woods. When the user scrolls down, they see a hospital, and a quarter of the rooms light up in red. The site provides information on people who are at higher risk of readmission for heart failure and the negative effects of such an outcome.
“It is a little dark, and that's intentionally so because that's the experience for these patients,” Wade said.
In addition to the website and press release, the company also set up a booth at an American College of Cardiology meeting.
Klick Health was the creative agency behind the campaign. Jeff Winton Associates managed public relations.
