Invega

Let's talk about Invega. Invega is the "newest" atypical antipsychotic on the market. It was launched at the beginning of 2007 by Janssen. Janssen also carries Risperdal and wouldn't you know it, Risperdal is going to lose patent protection in the middle of 2008. How convenient that a new product would arrive to fill the sales reps bag and the physicians' sample closets just as the old product becomes generic. Perhaps a little too convenient. You see Invega is really not that different from Risperdal. In fact, it's actually a metabolite of Risperdal so the chemical structure is virtually identical. One would think Janssen would be spending the next year trying to convert as many patients as possible over to Invega since Risperdal revenue will dry up midway through next year when multiple generic versions of risperidone hit the market. However, it appears that rather than have a conversion strategy, they instead are trying to pass Invega off as a truly new and unique product. This would be the correct strategy if they could actually convince doctors of its veracity. But, given the uptake to date, they're not really winning the docs over. It's so bad that when Johnson and Johnson report earnings, they combine Risperdal and Invega revenues together to avoid showcasing Invega's launch numbers. At least that's what they've done for the first 2 quarters. Quarter 3 numbers come out on 10/16 and although prescriptions have probably risen, it's unlikely that there's anything Janssen can do to change the path of the product's uptake at this time. (I thought this picture floating out on the web was pretty funny - that's the last cake that marketing team is getting for a long time.)