Big Pharma crisis strategy appears to be denial, blame and distraction
Pharmaceutical companies are not only not putting their best foot forward in relationship management with the government over high drug prices, which has resulted in the industry being on the sharp end of the sword in the Senate, they are causing deep fear in the minds of consumers and the public.
That increasing fear is driving anger, hopelessness and further entrenching negative stereotypes of the industry.
The government has stepped in for consumers and future consumers.
How Big Pharma is responding is shocking, as if it didn’t study for a final exam or critical business presentation. It is tone deaf and shifting blame.
Note: when the evidence is clear and incriminating, it is not only poor form to deny or redirect blame, it is failing crisis communications, to the media, public, investors and government. It’s communications malpractice.
This, in turn, further drives the unsavory reputation Big Pharma has, whether perception or reality, with perception often being reality in matters of reputation adversity and brand crisis or industry crisis.
While Washington politicians are known for grandstanding for impression management and ego, they will not be negatively judged for aggressive speech towards pharmaceutical executives. They will instead, be applauded, for comments like the ones made by Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.)
“Drugmakers behave as if patients and taxpayers are unlocked ATMs full of cash to be extracted, and their shareholders are the customers they value above all else,” Wyden said.”
He didn’t leave any punches not thrown, when expressing disgust about Big Pharma, calling its behavior “morally repugnant.”
The following comment by Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, also cut to the heart of the dispute, as reported by Christopher Rowland and the Washington Post.
“But we still heard much more from Big Pharma about casting blame on others for high prices,’’ he said. “Drugmakers alone set drug prices, they alone increase prices, and they alone could decide to reduce drug prices.’’
Pharmaceutical companies believe they are figuratively speaking, bullet proof. This false belief system has developed because the consequences for unethical business practices, far exceeding respected capitalism, have been missing.
Difficult to feel remorse if you lack moral and business character, including ethics. More difficult to conduct business to societal expectations when society doesn’t recognize alternatives to economically force industry change.
This crisis for Big Pharma will come to a head. Industry crisis communications are, depending on your interpretation, a failure or missing entirely.
Crisis management, the same.
A strong industry reputation is just not important to the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to drug prices.
Michael Toebe is a specialist on communication and problem solving within disputes, crisis and reputation adversity. He also regularly writes on those areas in response to stories in the news on business, government, politics, media, the medical profession, higher education, law, sports and entertainment. He’s written for such publications as Chief Executive, Corporate Board Member, the New York Law Journal, American City Business Journals and Mediate.com. He has been a source for TV interviews and self publishes on Medium, Quora and LinkedIn and has conversations on and publishes on Twitter.
