Pharma snagged five out of 30 spots designated for the marketing elite on Ad Age’s Power Players 2008 list. Each individual represents a company that is making milestones in terms of signature accomplishments and advertising spending. Let’s take a closer look:

#5 Brian Perkins, vice president, corporate affairs
Johnson & Johnson
Ad Budget: $2.41 billion
Key attributes: company’s sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics; conversion of Pfizer allergy drug Zyrtec to OTC; continued innovative marketing endeavors with expansion of its BabyCenter portal

#8 Susan Edwards, vice president, marketing
GlaxoSmithKline
Ad Budget: $2.46 billion
Key attributes: consumer business up with diet drug Alli (a $200 million brand); Sensodyne growing at double-digits speed; new CEO Andrew Witty outlines plan for more emphasis on consumer products and less on pharmaceuticals

#21 Ian Read, president, worldwide pharmaceutical operations
Pfizer
Ad Budget: $1.25 billion
Key attributes: Lyrica and Sutent both up more than 50 percent in the first half; Viagra sales were up 13 percent in the second quarter despite competition; agreement made to forestall direct generic competition against Lipitor until 2011

#23 Herb Ehrenthal, group vice president, global advertising and marketing communications
Schering-Plough Corp.
Ad Budget: $1.09 billion
Key attributes: strong pipeline of drugs in the making; big acquisition of biotech company Organon; organic sales rose 1.4 percent in second quarter

#24 Bernard Poussot, CEO
Wyeth
Ad Budget: $1.08 billion
Key attributes: raised full-year expectations with its second quarter earnings; acquired the Thermacare analgesic-heat-wraps brand from P&G; Thermacare can be coupled with its Advil ibuprofen brand

For a more complete list of agencies, see the 100 Leading National Advertisers 2008 database on AdAge.com

Two weeks ago, Shire received a warning letter for posting a sponsored testimonial on YouTube without including risk information. Shire was very open when I called them up and admitted that the video was posted by accident and immediately removed when it was brought to the company’s attention.

While I’m not 100 percent positive, it looks like this might have been the first time FDA actually name-dropped a social networking service in a warning letter. Which poses the question: Is FDA watching YouTube, and what does this mean for pharma? (more…)