International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the practice, prevention, and problems pharmaceutical companies face with respect to crisis management (CM). The pharmaceutical sector is considered to be the most crisis prone of all industries.

Design/methodology/approach – The study is exploratory in nature and data were collected by carrying out semi-structured in-depth interviews with key managers in 16 pharmaceutical companies. The open-ended questions were content analyzed.

Findings – Respondents identified product recall as the major reason for business crisis in pharmaceutical companies. Also, the results revealed that the large-sized companies had CM departments or had collaborated with consulting firms.

Research limitations/implications – This is a limited exploratory study restricted to one country. However, Greece's pharmaceutical expenditure is above the average in OECD countries. Suggestions are presented for future studies and especially for generalization of the findings.

Practical implications – Today's business environment requires a robust, enterprise-wide plan to deal with crises, especially in pharmaceutical companies where a “mistake” can lead to civilian casualties.

Originality/value – This study offers empirical findings from pharmaceutical companies, where studies are limited and broadly confirms the findings and conclusions of earlier studies in other industries in the international context.