The pharma industry’s standing among the U.S. public has reached a new steady state after the rise and fall it underwent as the pandemic ebbed and flowed. About one-third of Americans had positive views of the industry in 2019, according to The Harris Poll. That figure shot up to 62% as vaccine developers rode to the rescue after COVID-19 shut down societies, only to slip again as memories of the crisis faded.
Pharma’s reputation was 45% positive for the past two years. The latest survey put positive sentiment at 43%. After the whiplash changes of the COVID-19 era, things have settled down. Enter Donald Trump, a president-elect who fans and detractors alike agree has a propensity to try to shake things up.
Just how much Trump is willing to divert from the status quo this time around began to come into focus as he put forward names for the top jobs in his administration. Most notably, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is up for the starring role at the Department of Health and Human Services.
If RFK Jr. is confirmed, the department that oversees the FDA will be run by a person who has criticized the regulator, the pharma industry and vaccines. Biopharma execs presented the situation as business as usual on earnings calls and at investor events in the aftermath of the nomination, noting that they have a long history of working with governments of all types. But have they ever faced a government like this?
If the nominee’s past comments are taken at face value, the industry could face an administration that is, in some ways, openly hostile and willing to engage in a disinformation war. Anti-pharma, anti-vaccine views could have a higher profile than ever, voiced by people near the very top of the U.S. government. How could such messaging influence public opinion of pharma?
Science wins the day?
Some biopharma execs have made the case that RFK Jr. has rowed back from certain of his more radical views on vaccines. Lavina Talukdar, head of investor relations at Moderna, discussed RFK Jr. at a Jefferies conference in November, saying that “if you listen to where his stance is on vaccines most recently ... he is a lot more moderate than I would have thought.”
David Denton, Pfizer’s chief financial officer, made similar points at the same conference. Not everybody on the team “is a complete believer in vaccines,” Denton said, but “if you look at the actual comments from the incoming administration, they've not been as destructive as they might have been ... months ago.” The rhetoric “is a bit more tempered from that perspective,” according to the Pfizer executive.
Talukdar used RFK Jr.’s recent comments, such as the line “people ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” to argue his approach to vaccines is focused on “sound scientific data and transparency.” The Moderna leader’s comment is part of a broader argument that any disagreements over interventions can be resolved in pharma’s favor through data-driven debate.
Joseph Romanelli, president of human health international at Merck & Co., used the Jefferies event to voice confidence that “science wins the day.” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel drew on the experience of the pandemic, when misinformation about his Spikevax vaccine and other products was rife, to argue “our job is really to get the facts out, the data out” at a Piper Sandler event in December.
It is unclear whether a data-based approach will win against emotive anti-vaccine arguments. Outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D., called for the clinical and biomedical community to counter vaccine misinformation with “accurate plain-language information” about the benefits and risks in January. But UNICEF advises people to avoid statistics and focus on “the hardships of vaccine preventable diseases.”
Protecting public trust
Regardless of whether marketing teams target the head or the heart, the message is unlikely to land if the audience doesn’t trust the source. A survey of 150 life sciences executives, including 100 people working in biopharma, by the Deloitte US Center for Health Solutions found more than one-third of respondents believe improving customer experience, engagement and trust is very important.
The result is aligned with comments Vas Narasimhan made at the Meet Novartis Management event in November. The Novartis CEO noted potential positives in the comments of the incoming administration, highlighting “a large focus on noncommunicable diseases” and desire for regulators to “enable faster access to medicines for patients who have high unmet needs” as encouraging signs.
“On the flip side, we have to, of course, ensure that we don't undermine public trust in science, public trust in vaccines,” Narasimhan said. “We also want to make, I think, increasingly clear as an industry, the FDA is the world's best and most independent regulatory body. And we need to make sure we maintain the talent in the FDA to be able to keep reviews on an ongoing basis.”
Buckle up, the industry may be barreling toward a level of public scrutiny not seen since the pandemic.