Johnson & Johnson recently launched a Web site in advance of a media launch of its Realize gastric band, which received FDA approval in September. The company’s entry to the bariatric market, with its “small army of specialized sales people selling other bariatric surgery supplies and instruments” may have shifted the healthcare community’s perception of the procedure, says the Journal:
“In recent months, J&J has been bringing obesity surgeons to weekend training sessions to teach them how to implant the device. Bariatric surgeons … who once pooh-poohed banding say that J&J’s efforts are validating banding as an option.”
Allergan has, since November of 2006, taken to marketing its Lap-Band directly to consumers in national ad campaigns. When the ads first launched, the company saw a fivefold increase to its Web site almost immediately; and “sales of Lap-Band and other obesity-intervention devices soared 50 percent last year to $270 million, making them Allergan’s fastest-growing product line.” With J&J entering the fold, Allergan is now stepping up efforts to maintain its first-in-the-market advantage, says the Journal. In addition to launching a new television campaign, the company has “signed a co-marketing pact with Covidient Ltd., J&J’s largest competitor in the bariatric-0surgery field. Covidien’s sales force will scout out general surgeons interested in the banding business.”
Further, bevy of locally focused advertising from individual facilities and surgeons are furthering public recognition and knowledge of the procedure. These single-specialty facilities are often one of several backed by venture capitalists. “We basically took the Lasik playbook and ran it for banding,” says American Institute of Gastic Banding founder Peter Gottlieb in the article; the Texas-based company runs the True Results chain of six bariatric ASCs.
According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, the number of weight-loss surgeries performed in the United States has roughly quadrupled over the past five years, from 50,000 to 200,000 annually. Still, that is just about 1 percent of the nation’s 15 million morbidly obese, who make up about one-third of the total population.
For Becker’s ASC Review’s complete coverage of clinical and business issues in bariatric surgery, go here and download the Jan./Feb. issue.
