[CRISIS COMM] How EpiPen shot itself in the foot
Experts say an apology and price pushback is in order, while the company that sells the EpiPen keeps looking for excuses to justify why a twin pack of life-saving injections should cost consumers $600.
Pharmaceutical giant Mylan has been under scrutiny this past year for increasing the price of its EpiPen yet again. Since 2009, the price has gone up about 500%, according to Fortune.
When broken down, each EpiPen has about $1 worth of medicine in the injection. So it is obvious why the 43 million who are at risk of anaphylactic shock and their families are horrified.
At one point, the company tried to blame the government, and the new healthcare system for forcing their hand in raising the price.
However, the blame game was not in favor of Mylan and instead pitted some big names against them. Sen. Bernie Sanders took to Twitter saying, “There’s no reason an EpiPen, which costs Mylan just a few dollars to make, should cost families more than $600.”
Hillary Clinton also took to Twitter with her outrage:
After a series of similar hits, one that included a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the price increase, Mylan decided to do some damage work.
Late this August, Heather Bresch who is the CEO of Mylan, announced that in order to help cover some costs of the life-saving device, the company would offer a $300 savings card along with copay assistance. The company assumed this would be enough since it would cover a good half of the $600 EpiPen.
Unfortunately for them, the latest price hike wasn’t the overall concern of the people anymore. People were outraged as to why this device had to cost so much in the first place, even before this price hike. Instead of addressing the situation head-on and admitting its mistake, the company tried to cover it up with what was deemed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal a “PR fix more than a real remedy.” The company did not recognize that consumers had an emotional attachment to the situation and decided to take the corporate-giant approach, which was trying to fix the issue by temporarily offering assistance.
Crisis-communication experts criticized this approach. John McDonald, founder of Caeli Communications, told PR Week: “The best way to manage the crisis is to mitigate the damage and get in front of it.” Instead of continuing to reap the benefits of the monstrous price increase, the company should “roll back the cost, admit it was a mistake to increase it, and engage the medical community.”
People were left with a bad taste in their mouth, seeing this approach as a phony cover-up rather than a real solution.
In another attempt to reach the consumers, Mylan began advertising that it had provided more than 700,000 EpiPens to schools and stated it was fully committed to “investing in education and awareness about anaphylaxis,” according to the Wall Street Journal. But given the price increase had raised $1 billion for the company last year, some remained skeptical about this move.
After numerous attempts to gain back their image and loyalty of customers, Mylan ultimately failed at controlling the crisis that had erupted. Its tactic of playing the blame game and pointing fingers only dug them into a bigger hole, one that might be impossible to get out of. They used evasive and corporate language in all of their statements, were unsuccessful in relating to those affected by anaphylaxis on an emotional level, and did not solve the problem in a way most were hoping for. Due to this, the company continues to be seen as a villain, out to rip off the helpless consumer.
