ZELNORM HCP Campaign: Different by Design

Originally launched in 2002, ZELNORM was the first prescription treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation (IBS-C), prescribed over 12 million times by gastroenterologists (GIs) and healthcare providers (HCPs) until it exited the market in 2007. After a 12-year absence, ZELNORM reentered the market in 2019 with an updated indication (now for women <65), facing a market crowded with more-recently-launched brands. However, ZELNORM’s mechanism of action (MOA) is unique among its competitors; rather than solely acting a secretagogue (like Linzess or Amitiza), ZELNORM is designed to activate bowel-moving muscles in the gut, giving patients who’ve unsuccessfully tried other treatments a different way to get their symptoms under control. 63% of those with IBS-C using ZELNORM’s competitors report unresolved symptoms or side effects, so ZELNORM is well-positioned to help patients who continue to suffer from IBS-C.

Heartbeat’s HCP web campaign for ZELNORM encouraged PCPs and GIs to leverage ZELNORM’s unique MOA as a novel approach for helping patients with unresolved IBS-C symptoms. Because IBS-C is an idiopathic disease that can be challenging to treat, we found that HCPs and GIs are looking for solutions that differ from what’s currently on the market to relieve a growing majority of unsatisfied, desperate patients. Using a woman in ZELNORM’s indicated age range (<65), Heartbeat’s campaign shows a series of black-and-white photos of the many faces of IBS-C discomfort—bringing to mind the debilitating and hard-to-treat symptoms HCPs and GIs hear about from their patients—topped with a headline detailing ZELNORM’s innovative MOA. This photo progression resolves into the same woman’s satisfied face, accompanied by the tagline “Different by Design,” all in order to emphasize ZELNORM’s differentiation from its secretagogue-only competitors (and the corresponding possibilities for symptom resolution).