Drug pricing. The opioid crisis. Patent thickets. Scientific misinformation. Around every corner is an issue that has chipped away at the biopharma industry’s reputation even after public perception reached a zenith during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The consensus among biopharma leaders that PharmaVoice spoke to at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO) conference this week was that, yes, the industry still has a reputation problem. But they also said there is a good deal of miscommunication around drugmakers’ intentions and education about the drug development process would go a long way to rebuilding trust.
Still, business reputation research firm RepTrak saw pharma’s reputation fade away in the minds of the public just as the pandemic did.
“The unpredictable culture storm that boosted pharma’s reputation at the beginning of the pandemic has fizzled out in the first half of 2022 — their scores are down across the board,” RepTrak’s 2022 report said. “We’ve warned that high scores aren’t a permanent stamp of approval, but a call to action. And pharma’s actions going into the ‘post-pandemic’ phase haven’t earned them those lasting highs.”
While there are many factors to consider when calculating the industry’s reputation, patient access to medicines has become a major sticking point. In 2022, only 32% of patient groups surveyed by the research firm PatientView thought pharma was “excellent” or “good” at improving patient access to medicines. As many as 52% of respondents felt pharma was only “fair” or “poor” at improving access. In 2020, PatientView’s survey showed that 76% of groups thought the pharma industry was “very effective” or “effective” at supporting patients. READ MORE
by Michael Gibney
Source: pharmavoice.com
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has established a partnership with Novo Nordisk Pharma Gulf focusing on the creation of a national scientific guide for obesity management and weight control. The collaboration also aims to enhance public awareness of cardiovascular diseases and their complications.
Pharma giant Eli Lilly is teaming up with Haya Therapeutics in a $1bn deal to find multiple regulatory-genome-derived RNA-based drug targets, as it eyes up new targets in obesity. Under the deal, the companies will use Haya’s proprietary regulatory genome discovery platform to identify and validate long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) targets for developing potential treatments for obesity and related metabolic disorders.
The sale includes custom formulation and contract manufacturing capabilities for the nutrition market from the production facilities in New Jersey and Utah in the United States, and Tamaulipas, Mexico. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
