Gilead Sciences has come from nowhere to dominate lists of the drugmakers with the best reputations in Asia, claiming the top spot on two-thirds of the rankings despite largely failing to make the top three one year ago.
Patient View polled 64 groups across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), 64 groups in China and 48 groups in Japan. Gilead had the best reputation in ANZ and China, both among groups that are familiar with the company and among groups that work with the biotech. The result is a big change. Last year, Gilead only featured (PDF) once, taking second place on the list of companies ANZ patient groups were familiar with.
Gilead’s clean sweep of the charts in ANZ and China is part of a broader shakeup of the lists. Pfizer, which topped both ANZ charts last year, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen have fallen out of the top threes for Australia and New Zealand. Roche, AstraZeneca and GSK are the new entrants.
The turnover was less dramatic in China. Takeda and Roche/Chugai, the Swiss drugmaker’s Tokyo-based subsidiary, retained places on the lists of the companies Chinese patient groups are familiar with and work with. Novartis occupied the third spot on both lists last year but was pushed out of the top three by Gilead’s surge to the top of the charts.
The Japanese lists make better reading for Novartis. The Swiss company, which only claimed one third place in Japan last year, was the top drugmaker among both groups that are familiar with it and work with it. The local player Roche/Chugai retained a spot on both lists but its compatriot Astellas and Pfizer slipped off the leaderboards and were replaced by Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca.
All the analyses included more companies than last year, reflecting increased engagement between the pharma industry and patient groups in Asia. Between 92% and 96% of patient groups in the three Asian regions and countries said they worked with at least one pharma company, compared to 82% to 87% in the prior survey. The proportion of companies partnered with 10 or more patient groups increased from 19% in 2016 to 73% in the latest survey.
Patient View also collected the groups’ opinions on pharma as an industry. Most groups in each of the three geographies said the industry has a good or excellent reputation, with the spread ranging from 61% in ANZ to 77% in China. The ANZ figure was down eight percentage points compared to the previous year.
Like in other parts of the world, drug pricing is a reputational weak point for drugmakers in Asia. The proportion of patient groups that said companies have at least good fair pricing policies ranged from 10% in ANZ to 34% in China.