THE CORPORATE REPUTATION OF THE PHARMA INDUSTRY IN 2015: THE PERSPECTIVE OF 118 PATIENT GROUPS  with an interest in RESPIRATORY CONDITIONS (1st edition)

Report published by PatientView

27th October 2016

 

COMPANIES ASSESSED FOR ...

  1. Patient centricity.
  2. Provision of patient information.
  3. Patient safety.
  4. Usefulness of products.
  5. Record of transparency.
  6. Integrity.

THE 15 COMPANIES ASSESSED ...

AbbVie I Amgen I AstraZeneca I Bayer I Boehringer Ingelheim I Eli Lilly (Lilly) I GSK I Janssen I Merck & Co I Novartis I Pfizer I Roche I Sandoz I Sanofi I Teva
 
 

If you would like more information, or would like to get hold of this report, please use contact details below.

Contact: Alex Wyke     Email: report@patient-view.com   Website: http://www.patient-view.com

 

About this report

London, Thursday 27th October 2016. This report is based on the findings of a PatientView November 2015-January 2016 survey exploring the views of 118 patient groups with an interest in respiratory conditions. These respiratory patient groups came from 57 countries (28 of the 118 were based in the USA). The report provides feedback (from the perspective of  these patient groups) on the corporate reputation of the entire pharma industry during 2015, as well as on the individual performance of 15 pharma companies at six key indicators that influence corporate reputation. The 2015 respiratory results are compared with those provided by patient groups from across all therapy areas in 2015.

For the purposes of this report, the phrase ‘corporate reputation’ is defined as the extent to which pharma companies are meeting the expectations of patients and patient groups.

 

“Some individual pharma companies have improved [their corporate reputation among patient groups over the past five years], and some have declined. So, overall, it would be the same.” — National Ireland-based patient group specialising in a respiratory condition

“Pharmacies are playing an increasingly vital role in the delivery of healthcare services.” — Global USA-based patient group specialising in a respiratory condition

 

INDUSTRY-WIDE FINDINGS

 

The 118 patient groups with an interest in respiratory conditions and responding to the 2015 ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey were less positive about the pharma industry’s corporate reputation than patient groups in 2015 from almost any other therapy area (except patient groups specialising in mental health, or in gastrointestinal conditions). See table ...

Patient groups with an interest in respiratory conditions ranked the pharma industry 7th out of 8 healthcare-industry sectors for corporate reputation in 2015 (ahead only of for-profit health insurers). Pharma was ranked 5th in 2015 by patient groups of all therapy areas.

 

 

Why is pharma’s corporate reputation poorer among respiratory patient groups?

  • Several reasons account for pharma’s lower approval ratings among respiratory patient groups. Only 67% of 2015's respondent respiratory patient groups believe the industry to be capable of creating high-quality products. Although this figure might seem high, the equivalent 2015 figure among patient groups of all therapy areas was 72%.

Examples of comments made to the 2015 survey by respiratory patient groups echo such sentiments:

  • [Question to respondents: Which companies have the best record for supplying high-quality, useful products?] “Probably smaller biotechs. Everybody else just imitates, or buys products and companies.” — National Canada-based patient group specialising in rare diseases, including respiratory conditions
  • “Most information on adverse affects or clinical trials is not open source in India, and patients have very little access to such information.” — National India-based patient group specialising in chronic disease in general, including respiratory conditions

According to 18.6% of respiratory patient groups, the most-important strategies a pharma company could adopt to improve its corporate reputation are: a fair pricing policy; and also a patient-centred strategy.

 

HOW INDIVIDUAL PHARMA COMPANIES PERFORMED FOR CORPORATE REPUTATION AMONG RESPIRATORY PATIENT GROUPS, 2015

 

The Patient Corporate Reputation Index (PCRI)

PatientView has developed a new index called the Patient Corporate Reputation Index (PCRI), which enables historic comparisons of league-table corporate-reputation data.  The highest score is 1.0, and the lowest score is 0.0. The higher the number, the better the company’s corporate reputation/brand image among patient groups. Any score above 0.5 lies in the upper half of the corporate rankings.  Any score below 0.5 lies in the lower half of the corporate rankings.

Respiratory patient groups ranked Novartis overall 1st out of 15 pharma companies for corporate reputation in 2015. However, a 1st-place ranking for each of the 6 indicators of corporate reputation was achieved by four companies: AbbVie, for patient centricity; Novartis, for patient information; Sanofi, for both patient safety and integrity; and GSK, for both high-quality products and transparency.

Six companies were rated more highly by respiratory patient groups in 2015 than they were by the entire 2015 respondent body of 1,075 patient groups—and the most significant positive differences in ranking were achieved by Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, and Sanofi. See chart below, calculated using PatientView’s new Patient Corporate Reputation Index (PCRI)]. This new PCRI scores companies with the best corporate reputation close to 1; companies at the bottom of the rankings score closer to zero.

 

Overall 2015 rankings of companies by respiratory patient groups compared with the rankings by patient groups from all therapy areas. (Rankings based on a standardized index. The figure in brackets is the 2015 company ranking by respiratory patient groups, out of 15 companies)

 
 

END OF STATEMENT

PatientView is a UK-based research organisation that consults closely with patient groups, and publicises the work of the patient-advocacy movement.