A new report by Edelman reveals an East-West divide in how people around the world view pharmaceutical businesses' trustworthiness and their commitment "to do what is right."
Now in its second year, Edelman's report found that people living in China, which is the world’s second largest and fastest growing pharma market, reported the highest level of trust in the industry (89%). China was closely followed by India, the world's largest producer of generic medicines, where 86% of people trust the pharma industry.
However, the numbers drop significantly in the West. In the U.K., 60% of people trust the pharma industry to do what is right, and the number dips to 55% in Germany and 52% in France. In the U.S., the world's largest pharma market, 54% of people trust the pharma industry.
The lowest ranking comes from Japan, home of Big Pharmas Eisai and Takeda, which registered a score of just 48%, though this was up 2% from last year’s report.
Edelman, a U.S. PR and marketing firm, gathered data in March this year from an online survey of nearly 13,000 respondents across 13 countries.
The report also drills down into factors affecting how trust and health are viewed, finding that the rapid rise of global inflation tops the list of societal factors that are negatively affecting people’s overall health.
So too are cost and a lack of affordability, both of which have “also increased as the greatest barriers to better health,” according to the report’s authors.