Drug companies have been hit hard this year.
Public opinion, trust and reputation of pharmaceutical companies appear to be eroding, according to a new analysis from the research consulting firm Reputation Institute.
Pharma giants saw a 3.7% decline in reputation score from last year. There was also a significant decline in the public's perception of the transparency, openness and authenticity of drugmakers.
The points are calculated from 2,608 individual ratings on seven areas: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership, and financial performance. These contribute to companies' "RepTrak" score. Overall, of the 22 pharma companies ranked, Sanofi was number one and Pfizer was last.
Here are the companies ranked from worst to best based on perception.
22. Pfizer. RepTrak Points: 54.5
Pfizer had the lowest reputational score among the pharmaceutical companies that Reputation Institute looked at, based on the general public's perception of product, prices and public hospitality. It was reported in May that Pfizer used charity to mask a heart drug price hike. Pfizer also had a huge role in the drug shortage crisis, according to Fortune.
The drug giant is now taking some new risks and dipping its toes into some uncharted scientific territories like gene therapy and cancer immunotherapy.
“Pfizer’s reputation has remained consistent since 2017 and is on par with our multinational biopharmaceutical peers given the variance in reputation scores is limited. We look forward to continuing to educate our stakeholders about Pfizer’s mission to discover new medicines and to ensure patients have access to them,” Pfizer representatives said in an email statement to Business Insider.
21. GlaxoSmithKline. RepTrak Points: 57.4
GSK just welcomed the first female big pharma CEO onboard in 2017. With that, came a reshuffling of 40% of the company's top management team in a bid to bring in new ideas.
The drugmaker has seen increased competition in its core businesses: respiratory and HIV treatments. It entered into an open rivalry with Gilead over HIV drugs in November 2017.
In April, the company's shingles vaccine was recommended by the US Center for Disease Control.
However, in May, regulators in Europe and the US issued warnings about a link between the company's HIV drug, Tivicay, and certain birth defects. But just last month, the company's two drug HIV met goals in late-stage studies.
"At GSK, our purpose is to help people do more, feel better and live longer and we accomplish this with our innovative medicines and vaccines. We have a legacy of ensuring people have access to our medicines and our vaccines, and we lead the pharmaceutical industry in the fight against so-called super bugs – all of which has been recognized by the Access to Medicine Foundation," GSK said in an email statement to Business Insider.
20. Merck. RepTrak Points: 58.4
Famous for drugs like Keytruda, Merck has had a bit of a comeback as a winner at ASCO with its positive melanoma data. But the company has had its share of bad headlines as well. In May 2017, Merck paid $60.2 million to resolve a lawsuit about its practices to delay entrance of generic drugs into the market. Merck was also accused that month of operating an anti-competition scheme. In August 2017, Trump called out Merck's CEO about lowering drug prices and increasing transparency in their operations. Merck, along with GSK and Pfizer were the only pharmaceutical companies to have a "weak" score, while the rest had "average" or "strong" reputations.
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