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Mylan EpiPen Public Relations CampaignBridget O’SheaGovernors State UniversityIntroductionIn the United States of America it is required to obtain health insurance to avoid a fine at the end of the year. Prices are becoming difficult for Americans to pay due to the skyrocket of insurance and prescriptions. This has caused a constant battle between health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. Both companies are blaming each other for the rise in health care or prescription drugs. This constant price hike in turn is causing issues for many people that depend on these drugs to survive. The consumer cannot change “companies” and get a new prescription; they are stuck paying outrageous prices for their medication in order to survive. According to the Wall Street Journal, “while food and alcohol prices have risen 2.8%, and clothing and accessories are up 5.7%, pharmaceutical prices have increased 9.8% in the past year.” One of the largest price hikes that we have seen in the recent years is the EpiPen. EpiPen is an injector that saves the lives of people with severe allergies. Mylan is the company that produces this product and has raised their EpiPen prices about 500% in ten years. According to Connecture, “in 2007 the wholesale cost of an EpiPen was 57 dollars which raised over the years to a wholesale value of 378 dollars.” People caught on to the price hike and reacted. Many people used social media as a way of communication to Mylan to show their outrage over the price increase. CEO Heather Bresch was forced to address the public and go into immediate action.Addressing the CrisisThe issue of the EpiPen crisis first appeared when a consumer Mellini Kantayya, posted a petition on social media to stop the price hike on Epipens. This petition caused outrage across the world and acquired plenty of signatures. With all of this publicity CEO of Mylan, Heather Bresch, was forced to respond. She responded in an interview with CNBC Squawk Box, stating, “no one is more frustrated then me.” Bresch, knowing that her company was in trouble, immediately announced that “ Mylan would be giving increased rebates to many patients who rely on the devices”. CEO Heather Bresch needed to be able to stop the back lashing that her company was receiving and hoped that the rebate would be the answer. People were still outraged which caused Mylan’s public relations team to put tactical strategies in place to clear Mylan’s name of this negative publicity. Some of these included going on television in an interview trying to place the blame on health insurance companies and creating a generic prescription. These strategies did not seem to be successful for Mylan.Target Audience for EpiPen CrisisWhen Bresch held her interview with CNBC, she knew her target audience was the patients, the companies that purchase from them, and the government. Mylan is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. EpiPen is a one of a kind product and has a very high need in the world, which means if the patient needs it they have to buy it. This is not the case for all of the other products that they offer. Mylan needed to protect their name so that they do not lose all of their customers that purchase more then just the Epipen through them. The government became very vocal on their disagreement with the price increase. Mylan had to please the government so they would stop bashing their company. In the world we live in today the government can be very influential when it comes to crises like this one. Mylan did not want any other health insurance companies or patients to get on board.Tactics With the audience that Mylan needed to address, the tactical strategy that they chose was news media via interview and posting information on their website. According to Diggs- Brown, “thought must be given to what strategies best suit a campaign message and audience(s)” (pg 248). The CEO, Heather Bresch, was first interviewed by congress and then was interviewed CNBC for the public. Along with the interviews Mylan posted their progress or decisions on their website. This is something that needed to be carefully thought out by their Public Relations Team to reach the target audience in the most effective way. Campaign StoryThe audience was not convinced by Bresch initial statement of “Their goal is to provide everyone that needs an EpiPen with an Epipen.” This caused the public to question, if you want all of your patients that need Epipens to have Epipens, why raise the price? This is when Bresch stated they would be giving a rebate to some patients to get 50 percent off of the 2 packs Epipen. This was not enough for many people including Hilary Clinton who was outraged by the rebate stating that it was not enough. Clinton stated that instead of using a rebate Mylan should cut the price of the product because the rebate will only cause health insurance premiums to rise. Her second step in the campaign was turning the blame on health insurance companies. She did this in hope that it would take the heat off of her company and place it on the health insurance companies. In her interview with Squawk Box, "The patient is paying twice," Bresch, said. "They're paying full retail price at the counter, and they're paying higher premiums on their insurance. It was never intended that a consumer, that the patients would be paying list price, never. The system wasn't built for that." Their efforts did not stop here; Heather explained that they have placed Epipens for free in many schools across the United States. The last thing that they put in place was a generic version of the EpiPen for 300 dollars. The product is the same exact product as the Epipen with a different name and container. Mylan's hope was that one of these options would please the patients and stop the uproar.Was Mylan Successful?The options that Mylan offered to better their scenario after the public outrage did not help their case and they were not successful. Their stocks plunged and companies such as Cigna Health Insurance stated they will not stand behind Milan’s Epipen and will only be covering the generic version of the Epipen. The company was unsuccessful because they put the price hike out and then tried to back peddled on their decision. Mylan took back their price hike by offering a discount to those that could not afford the 600-dollar Epipen. This means that the discount will only help a small number of people and the rest of the people will depend on their insurance companies to pay for the product. These insurance companies will then turn around and charge the patient a higher deductable or premium. This turns into a vicious cycle for the patient. According to from Time, “it's worth remembering that insurance companies eventually pass on those higher costs to employers and customers in the form of increased premiums, deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance. In other words, even if you were not immediately effected by Mylan's decision to rapidly increase the cost of Epipens, you'll end up experiencing the price hike more diffusely—through the rising cost of insurance, or when your employer, burdened by skyrocketing health care costs, can no longer afford to give you a raise.” In the end the patient still pays whether it be to the insurance company or directly to Mylan.ConclusionOverall Mylan made a mistake by making the price cut so drastic in a short period of time. Mylan could have slowly increased their prices over time and most likely it would have gone unnoticed. Since it was noticed and turned into outrage across the world, they should have taken different steps then they did. I believe they should have responded on social media because that was where they initial blast came form and on national television. The company should have apologized for hiking the price up so much on the Epipen to show the patients that they care about them. They then should announce that they are going to do a price cut across the board instead of the rebates and discounts for certain people. This would still benefit the company because they still would profit but would also be more cost efficient for all patients that use Epipen. It would also eliminate the insurance companies raising their deductibles or premiums due to the product increase and would settled down the bad publicity they have received. ReferencesMangan, D., & Balakrishnan, A. (2016, August 25). Mylan CEO Bresch: 'No one's more frustrated than me' about EpiPen price furor. Retrieved May 02, 2017, from Mylan Taking Immediate Action to Further Enhance Access to EpiPen? (Epinephrine Injection, USP) Auto-Injector. (n.d.). Retrieved May 02, 2017, from health care industry is taking a stand against the maker of EpiPen. (n.d.). Retrieved May 02, 2017, from Are Prescription Drug Prices So Expensive in the U.S.? | Money. (n.d.). Retrieved May 02, 2017, from Cost Fix: Mylan Effort Still Hurts Consumers. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2017, from Crisis Management Lessons from Mylan's EpiPen Pricing Controversy. (2016, August 30). Retrieved May 04, 2017, from , B. (2012). Strategic Public Relations An Audience-Focused Approach. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. ................
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