We're Listening

Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a common complication for many patients after undergoing surgery. Without a new entrance to market in 20 years, HCPs have developed prescribing patterns on how they can best manage PONV with the available agents. In order to break these prescribing behaviors, we developed a commercial pharma campaign that sought to express the urgency to manage breakthrough PONV and entice clinicians to introduce a new agent to their armamentarium. For patients, PONV can be worse than the expected postsurgical discomfort and often lead to complicating factors. For healthcare providers, PONV can mean additional time spent managing a patient’s acute symptoms in the postanesthesia acute care unit (PACU) with unproven antiemetics. Barhemsys® is the first and only proven antiemetic for adult patients for PONV rescue treatment after failed prophylaxis with an agent from a different class.

To help promote this important treatment, we developed the “We’re Listening” campaign to generate empathy for patients suffering from this common surgical complication while highlighting the only approved agent for rescue used. The campaign featured original photography and tag lines such as “Gag. Retch. Rescue.” which embody the panic and discomfort patients with PONV experience while owning the rescue treatment space/use for Barhemsys. This campaign was carried through several deliverables including a virtual booth. We also created a website for Barhemsys, featuring a broad array of resources for healthcare providers to educate themselves on the therapy as well as PONV.