Pfizer has become the most reputable pharma company for cancer patient groups, knocking Roche out of the top spot.
That's according to the 2021 Corporate Reputation survey from PatientView, which asked 520 cancer patient groups which was their most favored and reputable pharma company last year.
Roche topped the tables in 2020, but last year it was Pfizer who came in at No. 1 across the two groups of drugmakers PatientView uses to determine which is the most reputable.
The first list looks at the top 30 pharma companies and the cancer patient groups who are “familiar” with the specific company they are asked to score, while the second focuses on the top 26 pharmas the cancer groups actually work with.
Pfizer came top in both, with Roche in second place, again across both groups. Novartis came third in the “familiar” category while Johnson & Johnson was third in the “working with” bracket.
Pfizer had a good 2021 when it comes to reputation scores, coming in second for PatientView’s global reputation score for 2021, just behind GSK-backed HIV company ViiV.
The drug giant also came top in 2021 in the U.S. when it comes to public image, according to market research firm Leger in an exclusive poll for Fierce Pharma Marketing run at the start of the year.
It's interesting that Pfizer's success in developing COVID vaccines—which is responsible for its high scores in general reputation lists—appears to have bled through to its overall rep score and may have bumped it up in the view of cancer patient groups from second to first last year.
Pfizer isn’t the biggest oncology player; that title goes to Roche, and it's no surprise that it’s a regular winner of these rep lists. But Pfizer does have a fair few marketed cancer therapies, including breast cancer drug Ibrance; lung cancer drugs Vizimpro, Lorbrena and Xalkori; and kidney cancer therapies Sutent and Inlyta.
And it was a strong result for the pharma industry overall in PatientView's survey: 67% of cancer patient groups said pharma companies as a whole were either “excellent” or “good” when it came to corporate reputation, against the 58% saying the same in 2020.
“Although many patients with cancer suffered from the indirect consequences of the pandemic, the sentiment of cancer patient groups towards industry, and to its achievements—particularly in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic—remained positive during 2020 and 2021,” the report’s authors noted in a statement.
This was driven by the 81% of the groups that thought the pharma industry “very effective” or “effective” at supporting patients during the COVID-19 pandemic—much higher than the 69% of 2020.
But the rep scores are bumpy when drilling down into different cancers. While lung cancer patient groups were the most positive about the pharma industry in 2021, blood, digestive and rare cancer patient groups were the least positive.