BPH ads didn’t help, hurt device makers
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A projected increase in the turnover for medical devices that help men urinate did not happen - at least not yet - for the three Twin Cities. The Director-General invites the problems of market changes earlier this year on two of the medical device, businesses, while the third manufacturer - Fridley-based Medtronic - quiet open this month had a $ 78 million ‘ write in relation to the product for the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, in the short or BPH. With regard to medical conditions, BPH perhaps not a household name not yet. But the pain, problems in the production of urine for men, when they are older, it is now a lot of prime-time exposure in the past two years thanks to the TV advertising for drugs and Flomax Avodart . Avodart The campaign, for example, the famous describes how men with BPH are not only “progress” problem, but also a “growing” problem - in the urine as a symptom of the growth of the prostate. A year ago, the local company of the aircraft were officials have sung a hymn to those ads, saying other companies, expenditures for men to seek drugs for BPH, which will ultimately lead to what more and more patients treatment unit. While the concept remains until a certain sense, the hope is not wide in 2007. “I do not know yet as badly by the ads, said Thomas Gunderson, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, Minneapolis.” However, it did not appear, have contributed to it. ” Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a noncancerous growth inside the prostate Affected than men, they age. BPH rarely causes symptoms before the age of 40, but more than half of men in their sixties and over 90 per cent in the seventies and eighties, on the condition, according to the National Institutes of Health. As the prostate grow, the squeeze tube of urine in the bladder and causing difficulty in urination - nature, as a parenthesis in a garden hose, “said the NIH. The men with BPH feel like bubbles is not completely empty, and are still, unless you have the bathroom. They could wake up frequently during the night to urinate or experience a low flow of urine. Drug companies have started spending for drugs at any BPH. Ad-riddled was spending $ 39 million in 2005 to $ 151 million in 2006 and $ 182 million in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Spending on advertising seems to work. Back in 2005, the five drugs for the condition, a turnover of 1.4 billion, according to IMS Health, Pennsylvania-based health care information. The jumped 30% of a total of 1.8 billion dollars in 2006 and then 17 percent to more than $ 2.1 billion during the past year. But Minnesota, businesses that sell devices for the treatment of the condition, which is not so well done. Plymouth-based Urologix markets in a desktop system that the management of BPH treated with microwave energy a catheter for heat and prostate tissue grew smaller. Urologix sells only BPH treatment, and during the calendar year 2007, the turnover of each quarter. In his final outcome of the conference call with investors as Chief Executive Officer, during the month of January, Fred proposed park, the company’s products have been overtaken by drug treatment, strongly encouraged, as the hospital-based laser treatment. “My own belief is that drugs are no longer effective in treating (patients), where it has ever been,” said Park. “However, I am the first to admit that the marketing and advertising of these drugs is extremely effective. ” Medtronic sells a product also doctors in their offices for the treatment of BPH. While companies do not break out the distribution, manufacturers Fridley said in a regulatory filing in June that the product was helped by two, that the turnover of Medtronic’s urology and gastroenterology develop products 21% to $ 221 million in the year ended April 2007. |