Can this reputation be saved?

PhRMA and
the Pharmaceutical Industry
It will take more than a spoonful of sugar to make this medicine go down.

by Katie Delahaye Paine

You know you're in trouble when the blogs ridicule you within hours of an announcement. Which is just what happened when Billy Tauzin (former Louisiana Congressman and now CEO and spokesperson for PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry trade group) spoke to the press this week. Clearly he was trying for mea culpa, admitting publicly that his industry had a "negative image" that wouldn't be turned around over night, but he didn't pull it off.

The real question is: Can the industry's reputation be turned around at all? We say probably not.

First of all, Tauzin himself has a credibility problem worse than a bad drug habit. He jumped from the legislature, where he was well known for protecting the interests of the pharmaceuticals, to the PhRMA job, where he now makes $2 million a year. Add to that the fact that Tauzin was one of those who helped push through the controversial Medicare Prescription Drug bill, which is widely seen as favoring the industry at the (very large) expense of taxpayers. His apparent penchant for stretching the truth doesn't help either: Tauzin told the media that the importation of less expensive drugs from Canada (something the majority of the American people now favor) could aid Al-Qaeda. Go figure. This is not a man endearing himself to the public or the media.

What was PhRMA thinking? Why would they hire someone whose reputation is questionable to fix their own tarnished image? Why not hire someone the media is going to trust?

And if you are going to put yourself in front of the media, perhaps you should do a quick credibility check before you start making the Al-Qaeda connection. Just because the President can get it away with it, doesn't mean everyone can. The press and the blogosphere found such claims ridiculous, and that's not going to help build trust with the public.

Finally, the industry has to address its fundamental problem: the high price of pharmaceuticals. Most of America is on some kind of prescription drug and if you don't have insurance, you're paying a very hefty price. Until we start seeing the price of drugs go down, all the image polishing and press conferences aren't going to help.

Tauzin did say that the industry was working to get more affordable drugs to the people that need them. But there are an awful lot of influential people, including journalists and bloggers, who won't believe it till they see it in their own wallets. And Tauzin's $2 million paycheck does nothing to convince us of the industry's commitment to the average American's well-being.

As we've been saying for years, it takes a lot of good deeds to change a tarnished image, and no matter how many press conferences you have, the image won't change until those deeds start to accumulate for the media and the influentials to notice.

Here is Dr. Paine's prescription for reputation repair:

1. Come out for campaign finance reform and cut back on the lobbying. Every time lobbying is discussed, drug companies are listed as the biggest spenders. PhRMA will never get over its sleazy image as long as it maintains the top spot in the "who wants to buy a congressman" game.
2. Stop trying to stop Canadian drugs. First of all, your arguments aren't holding water; secondly, they're not working. So just stop it, and instead of spending all that money on advertising and lobbying, use it to bring down the cost of drugs. I don't care how charismatic Billy Tauzin is, he's never going to present a better photo op than all those little old ladies on busses to Canada.
3. Sponsor something more socially responsible than football. Not that Cialis and Viagra sponsoring the Super Bowl isn't a good marketing technique. I'm sure it pays off. But, when it comes to the image of the industry as being committed to the health of Americans, there are much more appropriate poster children than football watching males with waning virility. The money you spent on that could give all the uninsured kids in New Hampshire health insurance. And wouldn't that be better for your image in the long run?
4. Stop using PR to sell more drugs. When the FDA starts citing press releases as part of the evidence that a company lied about the safety of its products, its time to fire the PR people and rethink your strategy. PR should not be used to cover up or hide product flaws. If the product has a problem, admit it and get it over with. All the press releases in the world aren't going to help build up confidence in Vioxx. Only better results from the tests will do that.

So maybe, if the pharmaceutical industry started a course of radical therapy right now, they might be able to turn around their image by 2010. But my guess is that it would be too big a pill for them to swallow.

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