|
Treating
Disease With a Famous Face
By ALEX KUCZYNSKI
NY Times, December 15, 2002
Associated
Press
CELEBRITY
RX Lynda Carter on "Talk IBS."
A publicist from a big agency with corporate clients called on a
hunch.
"This might be a long shot," she said. "But this is the
hot new disease."
Everybody who is anybody has I.B.S., she said, rattling off names: a
comedian, an actress, a celebrity couple. Even John F. Kennedy, whose
diagnosis was just made, posthumously.
And I.B.S. stands for?
"Irritable bowel syndrome," the publicist said. Lynda Carter
— an actress perhaps best remembered as Wonder Woman in the 1970's —
was to be the new celebrity spokeswoman for the syndrome.
And so a few days later, there was Ms. Carter, addressing a luncheon at
a Midtown Manhattan hotel about, well, constipation. "Sometimes
people go two, three, four days, without. . . ." she said, then
squeezed a toothy, anxious smile onto her face.
An expectant silence followed. Ms. Carter, who as a superheroine wore
golden wristlets that magically deflected bullets, coughed and sallied
forth.
"I mean, if Bob Dole can talk about his penis. . . ." she
added, sounding helpful.
She was right, of course. In America, there is scarcely any disorder,
no matter how lowly, that has not had its image enhanced thanks to a
celebrity spokesman. Anemia and its cures have been championed by Danny
Glover, rheumatoid arthritis by Kathleen Turner and bladder control by
Debbie Reynolds. Rare syndromes have found spokesmen in Ben Affleck
(ataxia-telangiectasia) and Rob Lowe (febrile neutropenia).
The public does not always understand that many of these celebrity
champions are paid players in the marketing strategies of pharmaceutical
companies, who pull the strings to make them dance before the public and
news media. Ms. Carter is on the payroll of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals
Corporation, which markets an I.B.S. drug. Mr. Dole, of course, was hired
by the maker of Viagra.
While attaching a celebrity to a disease can motivate sufferers to seek
treatment or lead to more research financing, the arrangements are
ethically complicated, medical experts say. Last summer, CNN and ABC
adopted polices to assure that viewers are told of celebrities' ties to
drug companies after stars like Ms. Turner and Lauren Bacall spoke of
their ailments on news programs without mentioning they were paid.
Despite the networks' bearing down, the practice continues and the
relationship between stars and sickness has evolved further, affecting
both the public's perceptions of treatment and financing for research. Dr.
Arthur Caplan, the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University
of Pennsylvania, said the relationship between celebrities and disease has
become so cozy that he is now supervising a study of the impact on drug
sales and public health.
The celebrity-disease partnership is a natural, if undesirable, signal
of the continuing transformation of health care from a profession run by
doctors and scientists to one run by marketers, he said.
"We have handed it off to the M.B.A.'s, who in positioning
competing companies say, `Hey I remember that marketing class I took at
Wharton; I bet we can get a leg up with a celebrity,' " Dr. Caplan
said. "If Swifty Lazar had called up pharmaceutical companies 20
years ago and said: `Hey, I've got a stable of celebrities; want some?'
the pharmaceutical companies would have looked at him as if he were
completely insane."
If Swifty Lazar, the legendary Hollywood talent agent, were alive
today, he might be Barry M. Greenberg, the chairman of Celebrity
Connection, a Los Angeles firm that specializes in hooking up Hollywood
stars with pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Greenberg maintained that any
celebrity, no matter how famous, is available to endorse a drug for almost
any disease, no matter how unpleasant, for a price.
"The joke around here is, `If someone is willing to pay off the
debt of the Vatican Bank, I can get the pope to do a commercial for them,'
" he said.
Amy Doner Schachtel, the president of Premier Entertainment Consulting,
which competes with Mr. Greenberg's firm, arranged the marriage between
Ms. Carter and Novartis.
She would not say how much Ms. Carter was paid, but fees for similar
alliances can range from tens of thousands of dollars to $1 million, said
Ms. Doner Schachtel, who has helped arrange paid deals for Mr. Lowe and
Mr. Glover.
"Sometimes they are paid for a one-day appearance and sometimes
they are paid for 20 days over the course of a year," Ms. Doner
Schachtel said. "So the fees obviously vary."
Ms. Doner Schachtel, who has been linking celebrities with drug
companies since 1996, maintains a database of stars and diseases. In the
case of Ms. Carter, she spent months calling agents before finding a
celebrity with a suitable connection to irritable bowel syndrome; Ms.
Carter's mother has I.B.S.
During Ms. Carter's New York luncheon, attended mostly by members of
the press, she said at least three times, "I am not promoting any
specific drug."
But it was a problematic notion. Although Ms. Carter did not mention a
drug by name, she discussed a specific kind of I.B.S. — I.B.S. with
constipation in women patients — for which the only drug on the market,
Zelnorm, is made by Novartis. (I.B.S. is defined by gastroenterologists as
a collection of symptoms that includes abdominal discomfort, like bloating
and gas, with either diarrhea or constipation, or an alternation of the
two.)
Gregory Baird, the vice president for communications of Novartis, saw
nothing wrong in the use of celebrities to market health care. "In
the end, I think we're better if we can still find the Lynda Carters of
the world who can say, `Women, here is permission to talk about what you
have,' " he said.
Dr. Lawrence J. Brandt, the chief of gastroenterology at Montefiore
Medical Center, said that Zelnorm relieves symptoms of
constipation-predominant I.B.S., but that it should be prescribed only for
women. Too few men were included in the clinical trials to determine its
effectiveness, he said, adding, "It's a good drug."
Celebrity affiliation can, at times, attract much needed attention.
Katie Couric, the co-host of "Today," has helped to raise about
$20 million for colon cancer research since the death of her husband, Jay
Monahan, in 1998. She has done so without remuneration from a corporate
partner.
However, even when stars are not paid, their association with a medical
condition might not always be in the public's best interest, said Jeff
Stier, the associate director of the American Council on Science and
Health, a nonprofit organization that studies public health and financing
issues. Mr. Stier pointed out that Julia Roberts testified in May before
the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations
about Rett syndrome, a developmental disorder that occurs most often in
infant girls, leaving them unable to control their movements. Ms. Roberts,
who was invited to testify by Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland,
had befriended a young girl who suffered from the disease and later died.
The actress asked the subcommittee for $15 million for the National
Institutes of Health for research, five times current financing. The
institute's decision has been delayed until January, said Kathryn Kissam,
a spokeswoman for the International Rett Syndrome Association.
While Ms. Roberts may have brought attention to a rare disease — and
donations from CNN and C-Span viewers who might not have otherwise heard
of Rett syndrome — the money might have been better directed to a more
common illness, Mr. Stier said.
"My underlying view is that when celebrities give of their time,
that is always a good thing," he said. "However, I am concerned
that all too often, because of the way our political system and our
society work, that celebrities sometimes play too great a role in
directing limited resources for public health."
Dr. Caplan, the medical ethicist, is supervising a study of
celebrities' impact on research financing and consumer drug use.
Celebrities, he said, often want to raise money for so-called orphan
diseases. "And that is wonderful," he said. "But the
science may not yet be there to treat a certain form of Alzheimer's in
quite the same way it is there to treat, say, diarrhea in third-world
Africa."
"You could save a lot of lives with simple vaccinations, with oral
rehydration in Africa," he continued. "But the celebrity
fund-raisers don't care. It is not wrong to raise that money. But someone
on the political or foundation or even university side ought to say,
`Thank you, Mr. Celebrity, and you ought to give us a little discretion.'
"
Ms. Doner Schachtel said: "People can be skeptical of the
celebrity angle. But the reality is that Americans listen to celebrities,
not the medical expert who is unknown to them. How else are you going to
get the word out so effectively on public health issues?"
Yet there is always the risk that celebrities' endorsements will
backfire. Two years ago, Ms. Doner Schachtel found an earlier spokeswoman
for I.B.S., Camille Grammer, the wife of Kelsey Grammer of "Frasier."
Appearing on "Today" two years ago with his wife and
discussing her I.B.S. condition, Mr. Grammer said, "We can't
basically make a lot of plans because you never know when an episode might
come on."
At the time, the Grammers were being paid by Glaxo Wellcome as part of
a public awareness campaign. Later that year, the company brought out an
I.B.S. drug, Lotronex. But it was withdrawn from the market in November
2000 after being linked to severe gastrointestinal side effects and
patient deaths.
Last month, the drug's maker, now GlaxoSmithKline, reintroduced
Lotronex, which is specifically for women with diarrhea-predominant I.B.S.,
with restrictions.
Ramona DuBose, a spokeswoman for the company, said that the Grammers
had been paid by the company, but that they were not recommending any drug
treatments at the time. "Theirs was an effort to raise public
awareness," Ms. DuBose said.
And as long as bowels are irritable, it appears that there will always
be a celebrity to spearhead the cause. No disease has a stigma so severe
that it cannot be overcome by compensation, said Mr. Greenberg of
Celebrity Connection.
"There are some things that are yucky and problematic, like eczema
and seborrhea," he said. "But there are other things that we
thought were taboos that our former presidential candidate waded right
into. And celebrities will do anything if the price is right." He
paused thoughtfully, then added: "Do you know any celebrities? Some
of them are poor."
Mr. Greenberg said he could only think of one disease that would be
difficult to pair with an eager celebrity.
"I don't think we'll see genital warts in my lifetime," Mr.
Greenberg said.
And I.B.S. stands for?
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use | Privacy
Policy | Contact Us
|
