Pharma

Endo Pharmaceuticals’ ads bring awareness to penile curvature

Endo Pharmaceuticals' "Ask About the Curve" brings awareness to Peyronie's disease, which causes curvature of the penis.

peyronie's disease

All bent out of shape? Love life throwing you a curve?

This could be caused by Peyronie’s disease, a prevalent but under-diagnosed – and misunderstood – condition that causes curvature of the penis when a man is aroused.

Endo Pharmaceuticals is trying to straighten things out a bit – bringing awareness to the disease with a new ad campaign. It portrays bent beer and ketchup bottles to help represent similarly contorted equipment – showcasing Peyronie’s as an everyman’s disease.

And this “Ask About the Curve” awareness campaign is a clear means for Endo to broaden the market for its Peyronie’s disease drug, Xiaflex. Ads for the drug have similar messaging:

peyronie's

Of course, the “Ask About the Curve” campaign is separate from direct advertising for Xiaflex, and doesn’t reference it directly. Endo Pharmaceuticals has partnered with the nonprofit Mens Health Network and ESPN sportscaster Jerry Punch, with aims to educate men about this condition – and encourage them to contact a urologist.

peyronie's disease

The campaign claims that 1 in 10 men globally could have the condition. While literature places the incidence rate around 1 to 3 percent of men, researchers estimate many more men have the disease, but many men are reticent to report their condition to a urologist.

Peyronie’s is caused by scar tissue buildup in the penis that typically results from an injury during sexual relations. It’s most common in men aged 40 to 60.

Some 54 percent of men with Peyronie’s disease report relationship problems, the ads say. Much like erectile dysfunction, this is a prevalent men’s problem – but unlike ED, which has been somewhat destigmatized thanks to decades of awareness campaigns, PD remains a fairly misunderstood disease.

peyronie's disease

Xiaflex, which is also used to treat severely clenched fingers, is the only approved treatment for Peyronie’s disease. Given the high incidence of the condition, such awareness campaigns are an extremely savvy way to break into this largely untapped market.

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