As the dust settles following the end of the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, industry watchers are evaluating where pharma and biotech brands stand.
To that end, Brand Finance recently issued a report ranking pharma, medical devices and healthcare services brands in terms of their value, strength, sustainability perception score and how fast they are growing.
For the fifth consecutive year, Johnson & Johnson retained its title as the world’s most valuable pharma brand and snagged the strongest pharma brand title from Pfizer, while CSL was named the fastest-growing brand, according to the rankings.
Brand Finance noted that J&J experienced a 5% brand value decrease but added that this was in line with the broader 2% value decline across the industry. J&J also dipped 3% in terms of brand strength, the rankings of which were based on metrics that evaluated “marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance.”
Hugo Hensley, valuations director of Brand Finance, said that despite current macroeconomic headwinds and a natural decline in the strength of pharma following the pandemic, these brands remain well-positioned to handle potential volatile conditions going forward.
“It is no coincidence that amongst widespread falls in brand value across the industry, all the pharma brands that have seen an increase or stable brand strength rating in 2023 have also witnessed an increase in brand value,” he said in a statement.
Among those on the rise are Australian biotech CSL and Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which both experienced brand value growth exceeding 30% over the past year.
Novo’s ascent is to be expected in light of its ongoing success in the weight-loss space with Ozempic and Wegovy, despite widespread off-label use, chronic shortages and a recent inquiry from the European Medicines Agency over reports of suicidal ideation side effects.
However, CSL’s value growth has been driven by its immunoglobulin portfolio, the nearly $12 billion acquisition of Vifor Pharma and the launch of Hemgenix, its hemophilia B gene therapy with a $3.5 million price tag.
The title as fastest-growing pharma brand also comes nearly a year after CSL announced it had unified its business units together under a single global brand.
“Recognition as our industry’s fastest-growing brand is the result of our focused global brand strategy and exemplary execution across the CSL enterprise as well as a multi-year effort to elevate our company’s external profile,” Anthony Farina, CSL’s chief communications and brand officer, said in an emailed statement.
In assembling its sustainability perception score and value rankings, Brand Finance analyzed how sustainable certain brands are viewed. In this category, J&J had the highest sustainability perception value while GSK had the highest sustainability perception score.
Outside of pharma, Medtronic led the way as the most valuable brand in the medical devices space for the third consecutive year, while Philips was named strongest and Siemens Health took the crown as fastest-growing with a brand value up 28% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, UnitedHealth Group came out on top with the most valuable, strongest and fastest-growing healthcare services brands thanks to its subsidiaries UnitedHealthcare and Optum.
