Lipitor's Pitchman Gets The Boot

Pfizer has been relying on the reputation of Dr. Robert Jarvik, one of the pioneers in designing artificial hearts, to bolster sales of Lipitor, its cholesterol-lowering drug. Now that a congressional committee is investigating the credibility of those ads, the company has dropped Jarvik as its pitchman. It was a telling reminder that consumers, besieged by drug promotion ads on television and in print media, need to take what they see, hear and read with a very large grain of skepticism.

Pfizer turned to Jarvik because Lipitor, the world's best-selling drug, is losing market share to a generic version of a competing cholesterol drug, Zocor, that costs a lot less. The company has spent more than $258 million advertising Lipitor since January 2006, most of it on the Jarvik campaign.

The trouble was, its very first TV commercial with Jarvik was downright deceptive. It suggested that he was rowing a racing shell across a mountain lake when he was not, in fact, rowing. A stunt double was at the oars. And while the commercials have Jarvik enthusing over Lipitor "as a doctor and a dad," he is actually an inventor and researcher. He has a medical degree, but did not go through residency training and is not licensed to practice medicine or prescribe drugs.

The commercials also fail to note that Jarvik only started taking Lipitor about a month after he started touting its virtues under a contract that would pay him a minimum of $1.35 million over two years.

Rather than fight with the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Pfizer folded its tent and ended the ad campaign. The committee plans to continue its investigations of the Lipitor marketing campaign and of possible deception in other drug advertising aimed at consumers. We encourage the committee to delve deeply.

Meanwhile, drug companies would be wise to find pitchmen who have the credentials - and the athletic skill - to back up their claims, without having to rely on stunt doubles.