Recently, PatientView released its Corporate Reputation of Pharma survey results, which found that more than half of patient groups (60%) believed brand-name drugmakers had an “excellent” or “good” corporate reputation in 2022, up from 41% in 2018. Every year, PatientView asks patient groups to assess the pharmaceutical industry’s corporate reputation using 10 indicators. The responses can be submitted anonymously and the survey is financially independent, therefore, the results tend to be honest feedback.
The 10 indicators surveyed are: (1) having a patient centered strategy; (2) providing high quality information for patients; (3) ensuring patient safety; (4) providing products of benefit to patients; (5) being transparent in pricing, clinical data, and funding; (6) acting with integrity and being trustworthy; (7) relations with patient groups including in communications, long term support, and ease of working; (8) providing services “beyond the pill”; (9) engaging patients in research and development; and (10) ensuring that more people get access to medicines.
In 2022, the twelfth year of the survey, PatientView received a record number of responses to the survey, 2,207, with respondent patient groups coming from 90 countries around the world. Additionally, respondent patient groups represented expertise in 27 therapy areas – with the largest representation from cancer patient groups. 42 companies were included in the survey, including three new additions in response to a greater interest in the field of rare disease. Some of the companies assessed include: AbbVie, Amgen, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Sanofi.
The vast majority of patient group respondents said that they work directly with the pharmaceutical industry, a sign that patient groups and pharmaceutical industry relationships are normal and acceptable. Even still, there are several areas where patient groups believe that the pharmaceutical industry could improve, particularly with respect to patient access to medicines. Less than 1/3 of patient groups (32%) thought that the industry was excellent or good at improving patient access to medicine. Additionally, less than one in five patient groups felt that the industry has fair pricing policies (14%) or is transparent in its pricing (19%).
The majority of patient group respondents believe that industry is good about patient-group relations (54%), ensuring patient safety (58%), innovation (60%), and products that benefit patients (65%). Patient-group relations has seen an 18% increase in “success rating” from 2018 to 2022 (from 36% of respondents agreeing it was a good relationship to 54%) and integrity has seen a 17% increase (from 30% in 2018 to 47% in 2022).
The survey also indicated that patient groups believe they should be included more frequently when it comes to corporate decision-making, especially research policymaking.