Not only is Pharma using a child actor to sell its drug, the many doctors with whom I work say RSV almost never occurs in adults--it is a mostly a risk that young children get! According to the CDC, RSV "causes mild, cold-like symptoms [and] Most people recover in a week or two."

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"I got you a birthday card," squeaks a young child's voice in a current Pfizer radio ad. Oh how nice of you replies "Grandpa" as he reads the "warning" contained in the card that people over 60 are "at risk" for RSV or Respiratory syncytial virus.

Raise your hand if you would love your kids, grandkids, partner, parents or siblings using your birthday as an occasion to convey a fear message from Pharma including the news that you are old?

It is part of Pfizer's "RSV Isn't Just A Cold; Not All Dangers Have Warning Labels" campaign which stoops to a new low in selling a disease to move a drug--in this case Pfizer's ABRYSVO vaccine.

Why a new low? Not only is Pharma using a child actor to sell its drug, the many doctors with whom I work say RSV almost never occurs in adults--it is a mostly a risk that young children get! According to the CDC, RSV "causes mild, cold-like symptoms [and] Most people recover in a week or two."

Still, older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, heart disease, diabetes and chronic kidney disease," could be at greater risk from RSV mongers Pfizer with a gleam in its eye. (Pfizer also uses the proven sales technique of giving a disease snappy initials like RA, EPI, COPD to move product.)

Scare Tactics

Scaring adults about the risk of getting RSV is similar to Pfizer's scare campaign on the radio to sell its Prevnar 20 to protect against pneumococcal disease. "Pneumococcal pneumonia can strike anywhere, anytime," mongers Pfizer. "It can be serious and could put you in the hospital." The drug will protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia and if you already have been vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia it "can help provide you with additional protection," says Pfizer, not wanting to lose a sale.

But, and it's a big "but," if you have a "weakened immune system" the drug may "lower [your] immune response" and be harmful instead of helpful. Ooops.

Selling "risk"--fear marketing--is a favorite drugmaker direct-to-consumer ruse because how do patients know the drug worked? How do they know if they would have gotten the fear-mongered disease in the first place? Trust us...ka-ching!

Why is Pfizer selling diseases when the pandemic was so good to the drugmaker? (In 2022 Pfizer's led drugmakers in pandemic profits netting an astounding $55 billion which allowed the company to move to a swank offices on 34th street between 10th Avenue and Hudson Boulevard East to occupy 11 floors.) Because hard times have hit the drugmaker and the post pandemic profit party appears over.

According to the industry site, FiercePharma, earlier this month Pfizer cut nearly 200 jobs in Michigan thanks to "plunging COVID-19 product demand." Is that why Pfizer is mongering Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy?

While few can even say it much less have ever heard of the "rare, serious, underrecognized and underdiagnosed type of amyloidosis that affects the heart and is associated with heart failure," as Pfizer says, if you have fatigue, stomach issues, shoulder, hip and/or knee pain, swelling or numbness in your legs or shortness of breath you may have ATTR-CM and your heart may be at risk. See your doctor-now!

Pfizer's Long and Disturbing Rap Sheet

Pfizer's aggressive and sketchy marketing is not new. (I include it my just published new book, Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Lies.)

In one week in 2010 Pfizer:

Suspended pediatric trials of Geodon two months after the FDA said children were being overdosed in the trials

Was investigated by the U.S. House of Representatives for off-label marketing (promoting uses not approved by the FDA) of the kidney transplant drug Rapamune, specifically targeting African-Americans

Agreed to pull its 10-year-old leukemia drug Mylotarg from the market because it caused more not less patient deaths

Received a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requesting its whistleblower policy

Saw the researcher who put its Bextra, Celebrex and Lyrica on the map, Scott S. Reuben, MD, trotted off to prison for research fraud

Suspended trials of tanezumab, an osteoarthritis pain drug, because patients got worse not better, some needing joint replacements

Was sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield to recoup money it overpaid for Bextra and other drugs

Saw its appeal to end lawsuits by Nigerian families who accused it of illegal trials of the antibiotic Trovan in which 11 children died rejected by the Supreme Court.

Reject Fear Marketing

Clearly Pfizer's sketchy drugs and drug marketing have not deterred the company from its shameless, fear advertising. Exhibit A is, in RSV ads on the radio, Grandpa should really be warning the child if anyone is to scare anyone.

(Article changed on Nov 28, 2023 at 5:20 PM EST)

(Article changed on Nov 28, 2023 at 5:38 PM EST)

(Article changed on Nov 28, 2023 at 8:49 PM EST)

(Article changed on Nov 29, 2023 at 11:57 AM EST)

(Article changed on Nov 30, 2023 at 8:16 PM EST)

Authors Bio:

Martha Rosenberg is an award-winning investigative public health reporter who covers the food, drug and gun industries. Her first book, Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health, is distributed by Random House. Rosenberg has appeared on CSPAN and NPR and lectured at medical schools and at the Mid-Manhattan Public Library.