Havas debuted its internal consultancy service that will focus on responses to disruptive treatments like GLP-1 drugs on Monday morning.
The advertising giant said its offering, which doesn’t have a name as of yet, will be built on three pillars: market monitoring and future forecasting, disruption mitigation as well as opportunity creation and acceleration.
The agency said it will rely on a host of capabilities, including real-time science intelligence, predictive data analytics and strategic risk advisory to guide clients through changes brought on by this wildly popular class of weight loss drugs.
Since the introduction of brand names like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro over the past two years, GLP-1 drugs have reframed the economic dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry.
This lucrative set of medications has generated billions for their respective manufacturers, experienced a shortage due to widespread off-label use and caused a flood of investment from rival drugmakers trying to catch up.
Additionally, a study earlier this spring predicted that GLP-1s will overtake PD-1 inhibitors as the top-selling drug class by the end of this year.
To meet the sizable challenges ahead of their clients, Havas added that this consultancy will be staffed with professionals from a variety of backgrounds, including medical anthropologists, strategists, data analysts, customer experience experts and advertising pharmacists.
In a press release, the company highlighted its track record supporting pharma brands as well as companies across other industries through their respective transformation efforts as an indication of the promise for its work in this emerging therapeutic area.
“The advent of GLP-1s will go down as a historic moment—eliciting seismic shifts across nearly every industry that our clients should be capitalizing on,” said Donna Murphy, Global CEO of Havas Creative and Health Networks, in a statement. “The disruption alarm bells are sounding. GLP-1 medications are the marriage between biopharma and consumer brands. And given our expertise across both health and consumer, we are well-positioned to guide brands as they navigate the untapped potential of this transformation.”
For Havas, this unveiling came weeks after Havas Health launched Jacques, a network of global agencies specializing in healthcare.
The Jacques network — named after advertising legend Jaques Séguéla — is focused on operating in the “post-campaign era” and disrupting the norms of health and wellness advertising.
The collection of Havas agencies that comprise Jacques will focus on serving pharma, health and health-adjacent companies.
