Drug Developments' PR Problem

By Derek Hennecke, CEO and President, Xcelience

We went into this business to save lives. So why does it feel we’re always portrayed as the guys in the black hats?

Are pharmaceutical drugs too expensive? Ask most anyone around you: drugs are way too expensive. To mention the high cost of drugs passingly in conversation is akin to complaining that all politicians are corrupt, or that all used car salesmen are slick and creepy. None of these things are true; what matters is that they are perceived to be true. Maybe I feel it more than some of my readers because I’m more business than science, but I’d wager you’ve been on the receiving end of that ‘look’ also. I’m talking about the way someone looks at you when they’ve just mentally labeled you as part of an evil empire that creates drugs for profit, then threatens to withholds them from dying children until blackmail prices are paid.