Sanofi has recruited actress Elizabeth Perkins, who has type 1 diabetes, to serve as the face of its Diabetes Co-Stars awareness campaign.
The Weeds actress will work on a documentary featuring people with diabetes and their caregivers, who can submit their stories in videos or written entries to the campaign website, DiabetesCoStars.com, and nominate their “co-star,” defined as “the person in their life who has made the biggest impact on their personal diabetes journey.” For Perkins, that would be her husband, director and cinematographer Julio Macat.
Perkins uses Sanofi’s Lantus SoloSTAR.
Perkins, who will star in the upcoming ABC sitcom “How to live with your parents,” said in a statement: “I am partnering with Sanofi US to share my story through Diabetes Co-Stars and I look forward to hearing from others about their unique experiences living with diabetes and learning about the encouragement they receive from their own co-stars.
Her doctor, David Kayne, MD, said “Elizabeth’s story is the perfect example of how valuable a strong support system is in a person’s overall diabetes treatment plan.”
The online “casting call” runs through mid-December, and two teams of winners will be announced at the end of January.
Celebrity campaigns are a standard trope of diabetes drug marketing. Southern food queen Paula Deen plugs Novo Nordisk’s Victoza, while football great Mike Golic serves as the face of Merck’s unbranded Blood Sugar Basics Gameplan campaign.—Matthew Arnold
