WHAT is the opinion of Italians on the work of the main pharmaceutical companies? And how has it changed during the pandemic? A large survey of nearly 57,000 people, conducted by the UK research and consultancy group Patient View, answered these questions by examining the participants’ position on various aspects of the behavior of 25 large companies. Almost 6 out of 10 patients show substantial trust in companies and this percentage is more or less stable from 2014 to today. The assessment of the management of the pandemic is somewhat less positive: only half of the groups of participants rated the response to the health emergency by the pharma as effective.
The investigation
The study was carried out from November 2020 to February 2021, during the second wave of Covid-19, a complex period on a health and social level. Through patient associations, the experts involved 113 groups of Italians with different pathologies and specialized in 44 areas, for a total of 56,500 people, who provided their opinion on the actions of 25 large pharmaceutical groups from they are well known. In the questionnaires, patients assessed the quality of the products, the transparency of prices and clinical trial data, the centrality of the person, the degree of involvement in clinical trials and finally the ability to respond adequately to the pandemic.
Patient ratings
In 2020, 56% of patients expressed a “good” or “excellent” opinion on the activity of the companies; in 2019 the percentage was similar, at 59%. These figures are essentially stable, from 2014 – the year of the first survey – to today, with a fluctuation ranging from 46% to 62%.
The evaluation did not concern only the world of industry. Retail pharmacists scored slightly less favorably, with 51% of patients giving a “good” or “excellent” rating. For generics manufacturers the percentage drops to 38%, for private health services to 33% and even lower are health insurance.
Companies: behavior in the pandemic
The novelty of the 2020 survey concerns the assessment of pandemic management by pharmaceutical companies. Only 51% of respondents said their work was effective or very effective, while the European average is 60%. In particular, the widespread perception is that companies could have done something more especially in disseminating information on the interaction between Covid-19 and the usual treatments of those being treated for various diseases. However, the document recalls that the assessment was provided in a period, in the midst of the second wave of the coronavirus, in which the number of cases and deaths in Italy was growing and our country was still in the lowest positions for the number of vaccinated, at least at European level.
The companies most attentive to patients
Among the companies included in the survey are some companies that we hear about often today, which have produced the vaccines used against Covid, such as Janssen, Astrazeneca and Pfizer. In the year 2020 in Italy, certain groups bought more credit and points than others. Janssen, for example, has climbed 12 positions in the ranking relative to the “overall corporate reputation” of our country, and is in 4th place on the list of 25 pharmaceutical companies. On the Italian podium this year there are Roche, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk; while always in the first three positions, if we consider multinationals that fall into the “Big Pharma” category, we always have Roche, Pfizer and Janssen in third place.
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