OraSure launches TV ad campaign for HIV test
Nov 28, 2012 (The Morning Call (Menafn - Allentown - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --It's showtime for OraQuick. The rapid HIV test is making its TV debut.
OraSure Technologies of Bethlehem will launch its TV advertising campaign for OraQuick on Saturday, coinciding with World AIDS Day.
The campaign will air on major cable networks, including MTV, A&E, BET, E!, Bravo and Logo, as well as on the Dec. 17th installment of the nation's No. 1 rated reality show, The Voice, on NBC, the Bethlehem company announced Wednesday.
The TV ads will complement a digital advertising campaign already in progress, the company said.
Though OraQuick, which can detect signs of the virus that causes AIDS in saliva, has been in use in hospitals and clinics for years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not approve over-the-counter sales until July. Test kits hit finally store shelves across the country in October -- a long-awaited development heralded as a milestone in the fight against AIDS.
About 1.2 million people have HIV in the United States, and about 20 percent of them are not aware of it, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those unaware they have HIV contribute to 50,000 new infections annually, the agency estimates.
OraSure also announced Wednesday that it has hired Kathleen G. Weber as its new senior vice president and general manager of consumer products, including OraQuick.
Reporting directly to CEO Douglas Michels, Weber will be responsible for expanding the company's consumer products franchise.
Weber has nearly 25 years of health care and marketing experience, most recently as a vice president at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, where she managed the 700 million U.S. analgesics and respiratory businesses, including the Advil brand. While at Pfizer, she also managed topical healthcare businesses, including the Neosporin, Bengay, Desitin, Purell and Cortizone-10 brands.
"Kathy brings extensive consumer healthcare experience to her role at OraSure," Michels said. "Her leadership will be instrumental in supporting the successful U.S. launch of our OraQuick In-Home HIV Test and expanding our consumer products business in both the U.S. and international markets."
Prior to Pfizer, Weber served as a marketing vice president at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Healthcare. She has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Georgetown University and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.
skennedy@mcall.com
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