While generally positive about pharma's corporate reputation, Italian patient groups believe that pharma companies could be far more effective in their communication with patient groups and patients While generally positive about pharma's corporate reputation, Italian patient groups believe that pharma companies could be far more effective in their communication with patient groups and patientsEmbargoed publication date: Tuesday, 17th July 2018, 6am GMTPress release based on the results of a new report: 'The Corporate Reputation of Pharma, 2017—the Perspective of Italian Patient Groups', 4th edition
17 companies analysed in this report: AbbVie I AstraZeneca I Bayer I Boehringer Ingelheim I Bristol-Myers Squibb I Chiesi Farmaceutici I Eli Lilly I GSK I Janssen I Menarini I Merck & Co / MSD I Novartis I Pfizer I Roche I Sanofi I Takeda I and Teva Providing patient information and support lie at the heart of what Italian patient groups do The patient movement is widespread across the Italian peninsula, and largely community based. PatientView’s currently-running survey, ‘Benchmarking the Patient Movement, 2018’ (results to be published August 2018), confirms that the primary functions of Italian patient groups are to:
Thus, information, knowledge, and communication all lie at the heart of Italian patient-group activities. And it is these latter activities that Italian patient groups emphasise when discussing how pharma companies can improve their corporate reputation. What Italian patient groups said about pharma's corporate reputation and activities Chart 1 shows that the majority of Italian patient groups took a positive view of the pharma industry in 2017, with 54% stating that the industry had an “Excellent” or “Good” corporate reputation. (Italian patient groups’ attitudes do fluctuate year to year, though, as Chart 1 also shows.) Over half of Italian patient groups believed pharma to be "Excellent" or "Good" in 2017 at innovation (51%), and at providing high-quality products (57%). CHART 1: Percentage of respondent Italian patient groups stating that the pharma industry as a whole had an “Excellent” or “Good” overall Corporate reputation, 2014-2017
CHARTS 2-4: The percentage of patient groups saying that the pharmaceutical industry was “Excellent” or “Good” in 2017 (18 different countries/regions, plus worldwide). [The numbers in square brackets are the total numbers of respondent patient groups per country/geographic area.] Italian patient groups do, however, take a more negative viewpoint than patient groups worldwide of some of the pharmaceutical industry's other key activities [see Charts 2-4], notably the provision of patient information, and transparency in disclosing the details of the funding of healthcare stakeholders—which, in turn, negatively impacts on Italian patient groups’ perceptions of the pharma industry’s integrity. In addition, Italian patient groups are more negative than patient groups worldwide about pharma’s ability to provide services ‘beyond the pill’. A call for further engagement with pharma Although Italian patient groups commented on almost every aspect of pharma activity (to some degree), the dominant theme they expressed was frustration with pharma’s less-than-effective communicational record. Italian patient groups called for better interaction with pharma. The comment from the Associazione per la Lotta alla Trombosi e alle malattie cardiovascolari Onlus (ALT) was a case in point. The Italian patient groups produced an extensive list as to how they think pharma companies should improve their communication efforts with patient groups and patients 1. Network face to face with patient groups (and also help these organisations network with another) 2. Produce clearer public communications (coherent and scrupulously honest) 3. Provide information sessions for patients (aimed at helping patients learn more about their treatments) 4. Provide educational toolkits for patient groups (so that they can better communicate with the patients they represent) 5. Provide educational tool kits for health professionals (so that they can better explain to patients the nature of their treatments) Italian patient groups also argued that listening should be part of the communication process, with pharmaceutical companies needing to spend more time listening to patients’ perspectives—particularly on issues related to research and development (as well as on the performance of treatment, once it is prescribed). A few Italian patient groups felt that patient/patient-group input into pharmaceutical-company R&D was a prerequisite if a company wanted to gain itself a good corporate reputation. So, how did the companies perform at corporate reputation in 2017, in the viewpoints of Italian patient groups? Ranking at corporate reputation is measured by patient groups familiar with a company. The rankings of the top companies in 2017 were largely similar to those of 2016.
The company which was given the biggest improvement in ranking 2016-2017 by Italian patient groups familiar with it was Janssen, which rose from 16th out of 16 companies in 2016, to 9th out of 17 companies in 2017. Janssen was also ranked 1st in 2017 for one of the 12 individual indicators of corporate reputation. PROFILES OF THE 81 ITALIAN PATIENT GROUPS PARTICIPATING IN THE 2017 STUDY Specialities of 2017’s 81 respondent Italian patient groups: Number Geographic remit of 2017’s 81 respondent Italian patient groups: Percentage FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS REPORT, PLEASE USE THE CONTACT DETAILS BELOW-End of press release- |