Drugmaker AstraZeneca Taps Pickleball to Promote Anti-Asthma Drug Fasenra
Renowned pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has partnered with the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) to help raise awareness for Fasenra, the company’s eosinophilic asthma biologic.
The collaboration is part of AstraZeneca’s larger Stepping Back Out campaign where the company encourages asthma patients to get back to playing their favourite physical activities after getting treated.
According to Matt Gray, Commercial Head of Fasenra in the U.S. for AstraZeneca, pickleball was chosen because it’s an “absolutely perfect example” of getting back out after suffering from asthma. The campaign was launched last year and features asthma patients returning to the activities they used to do before suffering from asthma.
“[Pickleball] fits our demographic super well—we see a lot of patients in that 30- to 60-year-old age group who are taking up pickleball as their sport of choice because it is something that everyone can get back out and do,” Gray said.
The campaign’s latest video, which plays on the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out), shows someone pulling a patient off the couch and into the outdoors to toss and play pickleball with friends.
The AstraZeneca-PPA partnership was rolled out at the Texas Open in Dallas last week. It will be featured again at the Virginia Beach Open in October. In Dallas, the company set up a digital game where people got a chance to serve a pickleball at an LCD screen showing eosinophils, which is a type of white blood cell that is elevated in eosinophilic asthma. This condition can result in inflammation and lead to more severe asthma.
Gray emphasised that the company’s initial efforts are about highlighting the role of the eosinophils in asthma and “what Fasenra does for these patients.” Specifically, AstraZeneca is looking to help patients who have been treating their asthma but are struggling to get it under control. He also said that many of these patients are unaware they’re eosinophilic.
“If people are failing those asthma controller inhalers, that’s when biologics step in,” he said. “Driving that awareness of eosinophilic asthma is a big part of what we’re trying to do. When they find out they have a different kind of asthma and that there’s a medication designed to treat it, a lightbulb goes off.”
Fasenra is currently approved in eosinophilic asthma and recently won an indication for pediatric patients over the age of six. It’s the latest drug AstraZeneca is promoting with the help of sports—and this time, the company has tapped the world’s fastest-rising sport. Expect the renowned drugmaker to step up its pickleball-focused Stepping Back Out campaign on social media in the next few weeks.
