Combination products, although they have been around for over 100 years, are now all the rage. And it is easy to see why. They offer the patient and the physician significant advantages in cost, convenience, and compliance. They are especially popular in categories such as HIV, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia where add-on drugs are often needed. We are aware of 10 separate products in late-stage development.

How you brand these products depends, to some extent, on the strategic intent of the combo brand. If the intent is “brand extension” and the goal is incremental improvement, often by the addition of a generic molecule, many marketers will create the brand imagery, and often the brand name, around the key proprietary brand that forms the combo. When the key brand has a high share and is a natural first choice, this is often the most logical approach and the simplest for the physician to embrace.

If the intent is “franchise development” and the new brand offers a significant therapeutic advantage, many marketers will create totally new brand imagery and brand names to reflect the magnitude of the therapeutic advance, often to focus messaging on significant improvements in efficacy.

And sometimes the intent is more about “franchise extension.” An example might be a combo of a statin and an anti-hypertensive, such as Caduet. There the big challenge is finding imagery and a name that bridge two different, but related diseases. We are aware of two other products (both for diabetes and dyslipidemia) under development.

But in general, with the exceptions of those combos that have a key proprietary brand whose branding needs to drive the branding of the combo product, the challenges facing the marketer or agency are the same for combo products as they are for single entities – finding a name and imagery that clearly, concisely, and distinctively reminds the physician of the brand’s unique and carefully crafted position within the array of other brands from which the physician can choose.