Hoechst Marion Rousell, the Kansas City, Mo.-based manufacturer of the controversial drug Seldane which the Food & Drug Administration said Jan. 13 should be pulled off the market, hit on one of the key facets of any crisis communications plan - acknowledging the problem. And it went one step further last week.
While it was in the midst of media and public scrutiny, the company not only admitted problems surrounding the antihistamine but used the crisis to tout a new drug it manufactures as a replacement for Seldane, which was introduced in 1985. (A decision to pull Seldane off the market won't be made until a months-long FDA review process, which includes allowing Hoechst's input.)
It was a crisis communications plan that put Hoechst in the driver's seat - a position experts and analysts all agree is pivotal to effective crisis management.
"We wanted to get our message into the marketplace and this gave us an opportunity to talk about Allegra (the replacement drug) and to deal with the FDA's concerns (Seldane can be fatal when combined with the antibiotic Erythromycin or the antifungal drug Ketoconazole)," said Hoechst Marion Rousell's Director of Communications Charles Rouse III.
Dealing efficiently with a crisis means sending clear signals to the public and the press about the situation, advise consultants at The Lukaszewski Group, a White Plains, N.Y.-based company which mentors managers on how to deal with crises.
"The slightest reticence on your part to take action will be interpreted by many as condoning the situation," according to James E. Lukaszewski, company chairman of The Lukaszewski Group. "Everything you do or don't do will be counted, evaluated and judged. Positive, prompt, direct action will move the count in your favor."
Part of Hoechst's crisis communications strategy included releasing, the same day the FDA released its plan to push for the removal of Seldane, a press release to trade journaliss and PR Newswire revealing its "aggressive new promotional campaign to switch patients from Seldane to Allegra."
It was a tactic designed to show that the company wasn't trying to smokescreen health concerns over Seldane. And it was also created to give Hoechst control over what information was going out to journalists worldwide, so that it had a part in how the story would be played out in the press.
Rouse, who was contacted by PR NEWS a day after the FDA market-removal recommendation came, said the company had been working for weeks on how it would respond to press, medical and consumer questions after being tipped off that the FDA was considering such a move.
"We wanted to have a strategic plan that would be a simultaneous or counter approach," added Rouse. "But we didn't want to be reactive."
Although Hoechst has received criticism for not pulling Seldane - which has been blamed, since its introduction, for hundreds of deaths from unstable heart rhythms because of dangerous drug combinations widely referred to in company warnings - off the market, its crisis plan probably won't net the same kind of scathing reviews.
Hoechst's plan centered around the company knowing what its key message would be and who would relay it, and Rouse said every one of the approximate 100 press calls the company received was returned promptly. During the crisis, Rouse was the primary spokesperson but about 16 other communications staffers fielded calls and faxed requested press releases, monitored in-house televisions with bulletin-board postings, and disseminated information via the company's intranet.
"Our crisis plan, which we began preparing several weeks ago, was to avert a crisis," said Rouse. "We decided to promote Allegra as an alternative drug product. That was our news peg - making sure that our position, not just the FDA's, was reported by the media."
Rouse said the company began working weeks ago on how it would respond if the FDA decided to promote pulling the drug from the market with a crisis plan that didn't only acknowledge concerns about Seldane but offered a solution. Other portions of the crisis plan included:
address consumer concerns; as well as
Working with Porter Novelli
To develop its plan, Hoechst turned to Porter Novelli, New York, which it has been working with since 1989, to seek guidance on how to deal with the FDA/Seldane controversy.
"The company got wind that the FDA was getting ready to do something and turned to us to help it decide how it would respond in the immediate future," said Suzanne Gabriel, Porter Novelli senior vice president. "We provided them with counsel on various scenarios which could evolve and went over possible standby sttements. We were involved not as spokespeople - because that is handled in-house - but to brainstorm possible outcomes, provide them (staffers) with suggestions on how they could respond and to give them input on contingency plans."
Porter Novelli's crisis planning with Hoechst included faxing the company press accounts concerning the Seldane health dilemma; providing guidance through in-depth telephone conferences; poring over question-and-answer documents covering possible responses; and analyzing tactics the company was considering as well as materials that might be released.
But Porter Novelli also provided guidance during the crisis. Assistance included a team of about eight people following media accounts the weekend before the FDA announcement and looking for what key messages were driving the coverage.
It also involved media tracking on the day that the FDA announcement hit, as well as during the several days that followed, with Porter Novelli preparing an in-depth, daily analysis of the press accounts.
By mid-week, Rouse said Hoechst's plan had worked: most of the stories being done by broadcasters, radio reporters and newspaper journalists included mention of Allegra as well as Hoechst's recognition of the problems surrounding Seldane. Case in point: a front page Washington Post article included, in the first three paragraphs, an FDA spokesperson agreeing that Allegra provided the same benefits as Seldane, without the harmful side effects.
But Rouse pointed to one "missing link - a vulnerability" in the crisis communications plan.
The company, which doesn't have a Web site, wasn't able to set up an online information resource for its key audiences: consumers, physicians, pharmacists and reporters.
It's a crisis component the company is working on to have in the future, he added.
(Hoechst Marion Roussel, 816/966-5000; James Lukaszewski, 914/681-0000; Porter Novelli, Suzanne Gabriel, 212/872-8000)