Whichever way you slice the data, oncology giant Roche has taken back its top spot from last year’s usurper Pfizer as the best cancer drug maker in the eyes of cancer patient groups.
That’s according to PatientView's annual report, which is based on a survey between November 2022 and February 2023 of 555 global cancer patient groups on how they rank the performance of the pharma industry.
Roche, which for decades has made some of the world’s biggest-selling cancer drugs, from Herceptin and Avastin to Tecentriq and Kadcyla, was in every metric PatientView uses the ultimate winner: whether by those patient groups who are familiar with the company, those who actively work with the company and out of all the big 15 pharma companies.
Roche last held the top position in the 2020 report but was dethroned in 2021 by Pfizer, primarily due to the attention garnered by the New York-based pharmaceutical company for its work on COVID-19. However, Roche has now reclaimed its spot at the top, while Pfizer has fallen to third place across all metrics used by PatientView.
Merck & Co. did not rank among the top three in the previous edition of PatientView's report, but, in the most recent report, the company secured the No. 2 spot out of a total of 24, as assessed by cancer patient groups familiar with the company. Additionally, Merck, maker of Keytruda, was also ranked second among the top 15 pharmaceutical companies in the assessment conducted by patient groups familiar with the company.
It was not a clean sweep for Merck, however, as French pharma Servier, maker of blood cancer drug Tibsovo, came in second when assessed by cancer patient groups working with the company.
The report is not just a ranking system for pharmas as PatientView goes deeper into the issues survey respondents see as the most pressing.
For cancer patient groups, the industry’s “continual generally poor standing at transparency of pricing, and about setting fair pricing policies,” was the main problem, according to PatientView.
“Many of 2022’s respondent cancer patient groups—whatever their cancer specialty—felt that cancer drugs should be cheaper,” PatientView said in its report. “And they would like pharma companies to provide patient information—not just on products, but also on the processes that lead to their development, and on how these medicines come to be priced.”
The pharma industry’s corporate reputation in the field of cancer remained the same in 2022 as in 2021. In both years, 67% of respondent cancer patient groups rated the pharma industry’s corporate reputation as “excellent’’ or "good."
But pricing issues continue to be a major concern. Just 18% of cancer patient groups said the pharma industry is “excellent’’ or “good’’ at setting fair pricing policies, while 22% saw pharma as “excellent” or “good” at being transparent about pricing.