Nearly 60% of physicians say disease-specific leadership and corporate reputation are the most influential factors regarding which medicine they choose to prescribe to patients.

The latest Brands in Motion study released by WE Communications on Tuesday morning finds that corporate reputation is a critical driver for HCP prescribing decisions when treatments have similar profiles.

Ultimately, a drugmaker’s reputation is a key differentiating factor among HCPs, even more so than relationships with pharma sales reps.

The top factors that influence corporate reputation for drugmakers are reliability, credibility, trust, transparency and innovation. 

The report suggests that companies should focus on these areas to build a strong reputation, especially since 81% of physicians say that corporate reputation influences their perception of medicine value.

These findings are the most recent updates to WE Communications’ analysis of pharma’s corporate reputation and how it impacts HCP prescribing decisions.

Two-thirds of respondents to the firm’s study published in February 2023 said they are reluctant to prescribe medications from pharma and biotech companies with a less than stellar reputation. 

Currently, the industry is at a pivot point as it relates to its reputation with the general public and HCPs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharma’s reputation rose to record heights — only for it to recede over the past few years as access issues and cost concerns returned to the fore.

While this study finds that the industry’s corporate reputation as a whole has held firm since the pandemic, HCPs predict it may start to diminish within the next three to five years.

WE Global Health president Stephanie Marchesi says pharma companies need to take a more intentional, multi-tiered approach to reputation management. This includes looking at corporate, above-brand and product-level reputation independently.

Marchesi says these companies should demonstrate leadership in R&D as well as innovation, noting that 47% of surveyed HCPs say this is a top action to improve reputation. Physicians want to see companies addressing unmet medical needs, she says, rather than pursuing more commercial opportunities.

“Doctors want to see what [pharma companies] are doing in R&D, they want more transparency into what they’re doing, including the successes and the failures,” she said. “That’ll help [HCPs] trust them more and have more of that reliability and credibility.”

Additionally, the report indicates that physicians want to work with pharma and biotech companies to boost access in a meaningful way.

More than 90% of HCPs say they are willing to partner with pharma and biotech companies to help improve access to medicines. 

However, despite physicians’ overwhelming desire to help increase access, only 27% believe that drugmakers are sufficiently transparent about their pricing and access programs.

This disconnect is in line with PatientView’s annual survey of rare disease patient groups released last month, which attributed the slide in pharma’s corporate reputation to the lack of equity around drug pricing and difficulty with patients accessing medications.

Still, there are several tactics companies can take to bolster their corporate reputation, according to Marchesi. 

Since HCPs want to see companies making a meaningful impact beyond just their products, she says these companies can demonstrate a positive contribution to society.

This includes going above and beyond with their patient support programs in an effort to lower the financial, logistical and institutional barriers to care.

Drugmakers should also publicly acknowledge and address mistakes as part of being more transparent with HCPs.

The overarching theme of the report is that companies need to take a multi-faceted, intentional approach to reputation management by focusing on key drivers like reliability, innovation, societal impact and transparent communication.

On the latter point, the study provides medical marketers with practical recommendations for bolstering their clients’ corporate reputation and effectively rebuilding credibility with HCPs.

“For a long time, communicators have been struggling to make the case for the value of reputation. It’s something we’ve inherently known: a good reputation is better than a bad reputation,” she says. “Now, we have the actual evidence to show that it can be a bottom line business driver for companies.”