Pharmaceutical chiefs are among the least trusted group of people when it comes to talking about health.
That’s the damning finding from a new report from consultant Edelman in its "2022 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust in Health," which was based on a survey of 10,000 respondents from 10 countries.
In the report, Edelman found that just 46% of those surveyed trusted CEOs of healthcare companies “to tell the truth about health issues and how best to protect the health of the public.” This was on par with government leaders, also 46%, with my profession coming off the worse: Only 41% trust journalists.
The top source was a patient’s personal doctor, at 76%, with health experts and pharmacists second and third, respectively.
In the U.S., surveys from the Harris Poll have found that trust in pharma in general has been up since the start of the pandemic two years ago, reaching a peak in late 2020 when the first vaccines came onto the market. However, that has dipped down again, though not yet as low as pre-2020 levels.
Though Edelman’s question wasn’t specific to reputation (and was global in nature, not just in the U.S.), its survey still shows a major issue in trust that clearly the industry needs to address. It used to be that pharma companies and its CEOs stayed away from the limelight and instead focused marketing solely on the company's brands. The pandemic turned that tactic on its head, with the company—and its leader— increasingly in the spotlight. But with them becoming more visible, the fact that they are not trusted on healthcare information remains a serious issue.
There is a slightly more nuanced look when Edelman asked those surveyed to “indicate how much you trust businesses in each of the following sectors to do what is right.”
These sectors included hospitals and local pharmacies, which both came up tops with 76% each, while biotech ranked fourth with 62% and pharma shared a joint last place with consumer health at 61%.
The report also found that in order to earn trust, healthcare companies must address “other determinants of health.” The survey revealed that pollution was the biggest determinant here, with 46% saying it was “very/extremely important” and 23% saying it was moderately important.
The other issues, which scored similarly, were poverty and income equality, climate change and racial injustice.
Many pharma companies have been picking up the baton for some of these issues, including AstraZeneca saying it will be carbon neutral this decade, Bristol Myers Squibb boosting diversity in clinical trials and GlaxoSmithKline looking to improve diversity across its workplace.