THE CORPORATE REPUTATION OF PHARMA IN 2021

The Patient Perspective—Global edition

The views of 2,150 patient groups

PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED UNTIL

TUESDAY, APRIL 26th 2022, 6 AM GMT / 2AM EST

Contact: Alex Wyke Tel: +44-(0)-7960-855-019

You can download a PDF version of the press release here

London, 26th April 2022

PatientView is today publishing the results of its latest ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey—now in its 11th year, and two years into the Covid-19 pandemic. Between November 2021-February 2022, the survey collected the opinions of 2,150 patient groups on the performance of the pharmaceutical industry during 2021.

Patient groups responding to 2021’s ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey are uniquely positioned to comment on the pharma industry’s performance in the pandemic. Patient groups not only understand the perceptions of patients, but are also the only healthcare stakeholder to network with all other stakeholders in the healthcare system.

Continue reading for details on:

How PatientView measures pharma’s corporate reputation from a patient perspective;
The companies included in the 2021 analysis;
The headline results of the 2021 Global survey; and
The profiles of 2021’s respondent patient groups.

What companies say?

The results of a December 2021-March 2022 survey of pharma companies about their patient-centric activities can be found in an accompanying supplement to this main report. We would like to thank the following 8 companies for their participation in this this research: Boehringer Ingelheim I Gilead Sciences I Horizon Therapeutics I Ipsen I Lundbeck USA I MSD (known as Merck & Co., Inc. in the United States and Canada) I Pfizer I ViiV Healthcare (VH).

METHODOLOGY

PatientView’s annual online ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey measures various aspects of pharma’s performance—all from a patient and patient-group perspective. The survey’s questions to respondent patient groups fall into two areas:

The performance of the pharma industry as a whole, compared to other healthcare industries―and for various activities of importance to patients.
The performance of individual pharma companies (47 in total in the 2021 survey). Companies are assessed by respondent patient groups for their performance across nine indicators of corporate reputation. A new, 10th indicator was added to the previous year’s survey (that of 2020), looking at companies’ support to patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. This indicator was retained in the 2021 survey [see chart below].

The nine indicators that measure pharma’s corporate reputation, from a patient perspective, plus a 10thindicatoron patient support during the Covid-19 pandemic

Respondent patient groups are asked to nominate the three companies they think “Best” at each of the indicators of corporate reputation

Over 1,000 of the 2,150 patient groups responding to the 2021 ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey supplied written commentaries on how pharma could improve. This evidence base helps to define the attributes of each of the indicators of pharma’s corporate reputation deployed in the PatientView survey.

Companies assessed for corporate reputation in the 2021 Global report

AbbVie I Acorda Therapeutics I Almirall I Amgen I Astellas Pharma I AstraZeneca I Bayer I Biogen I Boehringer Ingelheim I Bristol Myers Squibb I Chiesi Farmaceutici I CSL Behring I Daiichi Sankyo I Dr Reddy’s I Eisai I Eli Lilly I Ferring I Gedeon Richter I Gilead Sciences I Grifols I Grünenthal I GSK I Horizon Therapeutics I Ipsen I Janssen I LEO Pharma I Lundbeck I Menarini I Merck & Co/MSD I Merck KGaA/EMD Serono I Mylan I Novartis I Novo Nordisk I Octapharma I Otsuka I Pfizer I Pierre Fabre I Roche/Genentech I Sandoz I Sanofi I Servier I Sun Pharma I Takeda I Teva I UCB I Vertex I ViiV Healthcare

Patient groups that took part in the 2021 survey are familiar, or work, with the companies listed above [click here to view chart online].

Click here to read more about PatientView’s methodology for the ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ 2021 (published 2022).

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

FINDINGS AT INDUSTRY LEVEL

The 2,150 patient groups responding to the 2021 survey rated the pharma industry more favourably for corporate reputation than their predecessors in previous years. 59% of 2021’s respondent patient groups stated that the industry had an “Excellent” or “Good” corporate reputation, against 50% saying the same in 2020. The 2021 figure places the pharmaceutical industry ahead of all other healthcare stakeholders for corporate reputation for the first time in the 11 years that PatientView has been tracking the pharma industry’s reputation from the patient perspective.

The positivity of 2021’s respondent patient groups appears to be largely driven by the pharma industry’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Up to 76% of 2021’s respondent patient groups stated that pharma was “Very effective” or “Effective” at providing support to patients during the pandemic, compared with 61% saying the same in 2020. PatientView’s country-comparison chart is available online, and shows how patient groups in individual countries perceived the pharma industry's effectiveness at tackling Covid-19 in 2021, compared with 2020 [click here to view the data online].

Nonetheless, the vast majority of 2021’s respondent patient groups continued to believe that pharma could still be doing much more in several fields: • transparency • communicating fair policing policies • improving access to medicines, and • engaging patients in R&D [see chart below].

How good or bad the pharmaceutical industry was in 2021 v. 2020 at carrying out specific activities—all of which influence the industry’s corporate standing with patients and patient groups (Percentage of respondent patient groups stating “Excellent” or “Good”)

COMPANY RANKINGS

The top-five pharma companies out of 47 companies, ranked for their overall corporate reputation in 2021 (assessed by respondent patient groups familiar with the company): ViiV Healthcare, 1st | Pfizer, 2nd | Roche/Genentech, 3rd | Gilead Sciences, 4th, | and Janssen, 5th.

The top-three ‘big-pharma’ companies out of 13 companies, ranked for overall corporate reputation in 2021 (assessed by respondent patient groups familiar with the company): Pfizer, 1st | Roche/Genentech, 2nd | and Janssen, 3rd.

The top-three generic pharma companies out of 5 companies, ranked for overall corporate reputation in 2021 (assessed by respondent patient groups familiar with the company): Sun Pharma, 1st | Sandoz, 2nd | and Mylan, 3rd.

The companies rising the most in the global rankings, 2020 to 2021, as assessed by respondent patient groups, can be seen in the charts below.

Companies making the biggest rises in the global rankings, 2020 to 2021, as assessed by respondent patient groups familiar with the company―Rises listed high to low, left to right [click here to view graphic online]

Companies making the biggest rises in the global rankings, 2020 to 2021, as assessed by respondent patient groups working with the company―Rises listed high to low, left to right [click here to view graphic online]

PROFILES OF RESPONDENT PATIENT GROUPS

‘The Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey had a record number of responses in its 11th year, with a total of 2,150 patient-advocacy groups taking part to review a total of 47 companies. The respondent patient groups had reached out to approximately 19 million patients in 2021.

“Every question you are asking is related to Covid-19. It’s almost like you don’t know that, during Covid, every year 2 million Americans are newly diagnosed with cancer—that 660,000 would die from it. Every year.

Yes, Covid has been horrible. But cancer has been doing this to Americans for decades and decades. It did not hit pause during Covid. Covid caused those we serve to have their treatments postponed, creating worse long-term outcomes as the unvaccinated flooded the hospital beds. If big pharma wants to help us ... try helping those that are in the trenches with them everyday, as a start. You don’t have the insights to make the calls that those organizations do.”

― National cancer patient group, USA

2021’s respondent patient groups were headquartered in Western Europe, North America, Central and Latin America, and Asia.

2021’s respondent patient groups specialised in 23 broad disease subject areas [see chart below]. The ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’s 2021 series of reports also include more-granular insights into these 23 broad specialties.

Finally, PatientView would like to thank the 2,150 patient groups and health campaigners who gave up their time to respond to the 'Corporate Reputation of Pharma' survey 2021 (published 2022).

These respondent patient groups feel that the sharing of feedback and experiences on whether the pharma industry (and individual pharma companies) meet their needs and expectations will help the industry gain valuable insights into improvement in meaningful ways.

Many of the 47 pharma companies featured in the 2021 ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma’ survey are building strategies around patients, and the feedback the survey results provides can influence their models and approaches, enabling companies to align more closely with patient needs and perspectives.

For further information on this global report, please use contact details at the head of the press release.