When evaluating a potential crisis there are two types of causes – external and internal. Internal causes are often things the company is doing wrong and know is wrong, while external causes are circumstances the company has no control over. External forces can be broken down into political-legal, economic, social, and technical. As a pharmaceutical company, Pfizer has the most to fear from political-legal causes.
For the last year healthcare reform has been at the center of congressional debates. Preliminary bills have been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate is currently debating the issue. It’s unclear to what extent these new regulations will have an effect on the Pharmaceutical industry, but it can be assumed it will present a fair share of problems. One of the largest components of proposed legislation is reducing the cost of drug prescriptions. Pharmaceutical companies depend on selling drugs to provide the majority of their profits. They spend millions of dollars creating new drugs in order to then make millions of dollars selling drugs. Federally stipulated drug prices could throw the industry into a period of rapid recession.
Pfizer needs to be planning for a potential hit in the profits made from their various drugs. Developing a task force to deal strictly with potential changes that will come of new healthcare regulations, will give Pfizer a tremendous advantage. Political analysts, lawyers, lobbyists, and business analysts would be ideal candidates for a healthcare reform crisis team. The team should, or course, be lead by a PR practitioner (or practitioners) with extensive backgrounds in the pharmaceutical industry. The goal of effective crisis management is to be prepared for anything that may hurt your company and have a prepared plan of how to handle it.
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