When it comes to pharma’s reputation at the end of 2022, there’s some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that according to the Harris Poll, pharma’s rep in the U.S. is continuing to drop from its peak in of 62% positive in December 2020 when the first COVID mRNA shots were authorized by the FDA. But it’s not all doom and gloom for the industry; at a 45% positive rating, it’s still up from a pre-pandemic 32%, so that’s good.
The other “good” thing to note is it’s not that pharma did anything wrong—there’s not some big scandal tanking its rep. Even the whole fake “We are excited to announced insulin is free now” Eli Lilly Twitter post fiasco turned out to only be a blip in the markets and not the downfall of the industry.
The fact is much more mundane: When pharma isn’t top of mind, its reputation drops. Now that COVID-19 is moving from super scary pandemic to mostly annoying endemic, pharma just isn’t the predominant thought for most folks. When the price of gas is eye-watering, the economy is terrifying and women’s rights are eroding, who has the bandwidth to think about pharma?
According to Rob Jekielek, managing director at Harris Poll, last year nearly 60% of people polled said COVID-19 was the top issue, while this year it’s less than 10%.
“The dominant force in the minds of Americans today is very much around inflation. For a long period of time, pharma and COVID-19 were very much front of mind, and through that period pharma was definitely seen as a really big part of the solution,” he said.
It’s that view of pharma companies as problem solvers that's key to keeping the industry’s rep up. Jekielek says the more people saw pharma as those problem solvers and scientists as opposed to the business of pharma—sales reps and high prices—the more it resonated favorably.
“The key priority for pharma from a reputational perspective is, how do you keep the science and scientists at the forefront versus getting pulled into it being all about issues related to pricing and sales?” He said.
In the increasingly polarized landscape of today, it’s not surprising that conservatives and liberals view the industry in different ways as well.
“If you're looking at how more conservative Republicans are looking at these issues, they're much more anti-mandate of any sort and have become more skeptical towards pharma; versus if you're looking from the Democratic or more liberal perspective, they’re looking at COVID-19 being a much bigger issue than other Americans and seeing pharma as a much more core part of the solution,” Jekielek said. “Most of the strength in U.S. pharma reputation is holding most heavily with more kind of a liberal or Democrats versus conservative or Republicans.”
So how can pharma improve its reputation, or at the very least keep it from falling further?
When it comes to COVID-19, Jekielek says the industry “really stepped up and showed itself to be a really big problem solver.” And that’s really the key to keeping the goodwill going.
Even though the positive rating is lower than its peak, pharma is still at 45% positive, as Jekielek put it, on its front foot.
“It does feel like the industry has some some real unique opportunities, still generally on its front foot … as long as you're being very constructive and moving the ball forward.”