Take two valium, get some anger-management counseling, and stop working for PhRMA....
I haven't been keeping up with the news too well lately. But I was surprised to learn from PharmaMarketing blog and PharmaGossip that T.V. talk show host Montel Williams recently confronted a high school intern working for a Savannah, Georgia newspaper who had asked him a challenging question (something along the lines of "Why are prescription drug costs so high?") during a press conference.
He was in town to promote a lower-cost prescription program. Click here for more from FOX News. When he found the reporter at his hotel (she was there covering another event), he probably suspected that she was stalking him and reportedly told her "I can look you up, find out where you live and blow you up." Way to go. What a fine example and what a way to talk to a young person.
John Mack, PharmaGossip and others have suggested that PhRMA fire Montel.
Mr. Williams, a spokesperson for PhRMA, suffers from MS. Perhaps his loyalty to companies that are working on a cure for this terrible condition overcame his reason. I wish him well in his treatments.
But it now appears that he could have used a few other prescriptions, too.
I don't want to think of PhRMA's public relations people as the gang that couldn't shoot straight, given the combined brain power and funding, but does PhRMA really need any more P.R. liabilities? We've definitely seen some over the years---- remember that lame spy novel?
Perhaps Montel will voluntarily step down, admit to having an anger-management problem (and thus open up a whole new spokesperson opportunity, once a treatment for rage is approved for DTC advertising) and issue a public, televised apology?
AMS
