PHARMA NEWS, MULTICHANNEL & CROSSCHANNEL MAKETING

London, April 5th, 2018.

The 'Corporate Reputation of Pharma in 2017' report is based on the findings of a PatientView November 2017-February 2018 survey exploring the views of 1,330 patient groups worldwide. The report provides feedback (from the perspective of these patient groups) on the corporate reputation of the pharma industry during 2017, as well as on the performance of46 pharma companies at 12 key indicators that influence corporate reputation.

The Corporate-Reputation survey is now in its 7th edition—thus, 7 years of historical data are available. In addition, we incorporated several important new indicators of corporate reputation into the 2017 survey—to reflect the changing, and more demanding, relationships that now exist between patient groups and pharma companies.  

In 2017, patient-group attitudes towards pharma improved, after plummeting in 2016.

43% of respondent patient groups thought that the pharma industry had an "Excellent" or "Good" corporate reputation in 2017—against 38% of patient groups saying the same in 2016.

In 2017, respondent patient groups ranked the pharma industry 3rd overall for corporate reputation out of 9 healthcare-industry sectors, the other sectors being: biotech; generic-drugs industry; health insurers (for-profit, and not-for-profit); medical-device industry; private-sector healthcare; and retail pharmacy. In 2016, patient groups ranked the pharmaceutical industry just 5th out of 9 healthcare sectors.

PHARMA ALSO IMPROVED IN KEY ACTIVITIES IN 2017 ...

2017's respondent patient groups rated pharma as improving its performance over 2016 at three areas of activity important to patients and patient groups: patient centredness (35% of the patient groups stated that the industry was “Excellent” or “Good” at this activity, compared with just 26% in 2016); integrity (31% described the industry as “Excellent” or “Good” at this activity, compared with just 28% in 2016); and in services provided ‘beyond the pill' (27% thought industry “Excellent” or “Good” at this, compared with just 20% in 2016).

BUT ...
Respondent patient groups were far more negative in 2017 than in 2016 about several other pharma-industry activities. For instance, only 48% of 2017’s respondent patient groups judged pharma “Excellent” or “Good” at being innovative (down from 59% in 2016; which, in turn, was down from 69% in 2015). The 2017 figure is the lowest-reported percentage for the pharma industry's capacity to innovate since 2011 (when PatientView's  Corporate-Reputation surveys began). Equally negative were 2017 attitudes towards the industry’s ability to make high-quality products. Only 57% of respondent patient groups in 2017 saw pharma as “Excellent” or “Good” at making high-quality products (down from 64% in 2016—which, was, in itself, also down from 72% in 2015). Again, the 2017 figure is the lowest-reported percentage for pharma and high-quality products since 2011.