Horizon Therapeutics has picked up another garland on its pre-takeover victory lap. Months after general patient groups crowned Horizon the most reputable pharma in the U.S., rare disease organizations have bestowed (PDF) the same honor on the company in a related orphan drug survey.
PatientView generated both rankings. For the latest listing, the company gathered the views of 426 rare disease patient groups. Horizon, which ranked third among rare disease patient groups familiar with the company last year, climbed to first place on the listing this year and bumped Roche off the top. Roche fell back to second and Takeda, a new name on the winners’ rostrum, took third.
The same businesses took the top three spots when the analysis was limited to rare disease groups that worked with the companies. In that analysis, Roche retained the No. 1 spot, followed by Horizon and Takeda.
One name is notable by its absence: Pfizer. The Big Pharma held (PDF) second spot on both lists last year but was pushed out of the top three in the latest survey. Pfizer held on to a spot in the top three Big Pharma companies that rare disease groups are familiar with, although it slipped to third on that list and fell out of the top three for Big Pharmas the groups work with altogether.
Outside of the top three, PatientView tracked some big shifts in the rankings. UCB was the fastest riser among rare disease groups familiar with the biopharma companies, climbing five spots. AstraZeneca and Octapharma rose four places. Among patient groups that work with the companies, CSL Behring got the biggest bump, jumping six places.
Overall, the industry largely held on to the reputational gains it has made in recent years. Most, 57%, of the respondents said the industry has a good or excellent corporate reputation. That represents a slight fall from the 59% result last year but is still way above the 33% response reported in 2018.
Pricing remains a weakness, though. In the latest survey, 11% of respondents rated the industry as good or excellent at having fair pricing policies. The figure was 15% in the previous poll. Pricing transparency was again another gripe of rare disease groups, with 18% of respondents calling the industry good or excellent on that front.