Merck UK DTC ads target alcohol

Merck Pharmaceuticals, the UK ethical pharmaceutical arm of Merck KGaAof Germany, is running a disease awareness campaign in the UK for the whole of January, targeting alchohol addiction. A spokesman for the company told the Marketletter that hospital admissions for alcohol addiction rise 20% in the period following Christmas and New Year.

The print media campaign, which is appearing in national newspapers and the general practitioner press, tells readers: "if you have just realized that drink has too strong a hold over you, help is near at hand. There are medicines available on prescription that can reduce your craving for alcohol and help break your drinking pattern." It adds: "Your doctor will have a good idea of what you are facing and can help you see it through."

In late 1995, the European Medicines Evaluation Agency approved Merck's Campral (acamprosate) in a number of European countries, including the UK, as a therapy to maintain abstinence in alcohol-dependent patients, to be used in combination with counseling (Marketletter November 20, 1995). The ads in the new UK campaign note the fact that they have been sponsored by Merck Pharmaceuticals, but Campral's name does not appear.