There’s a disconnect between who pharma is as an industry and how the general public perceives us. I saw this firsthand during a conversation with my daughter years ago. A college student at the time, her views of the pharma industry were typical of many Americans. So, I encouraged her to come work with me at what was then Global Blood Therapeutics to see for herself. She joined us for a summer. “You’re not going to believe what I’m going to tell you next,” she said to me one night after work on our drive home. “But I never imagined something like this could exist – where there is this group of people who work so hard and are so dedicated to a mission of helping people. It’s not about themselves – it’s about these people.” I told her that’s what our industry is at our core – one group on a mission to help people. Who we are as an industry is extraordinary. But my daughter’s initial viewpoints illustrate that we have to do a better job of enhancing trust in what we do. This is crucial to our ability to support more patients, and ultimately improve the health outcomes of entire communities. I discuss this more in this month’s episode of Life Science Cares' Moving Forward, Giving Back, which was recorded at #JPM2024. You can find it below ⤵️
Reputation Reboot: Steps to Restoring Public Trust in the Biopharma Industry
player.blubrry.com
Pauline Jen Ryan
7mo
I absolutely agree! I have never understood how the pharma industry is so vilified. We are treated the same as the tobacco industry. Yet, everyone I know outside the industry who then comes to work in it is absolutely hooked. They are amazed at how dedicated everyone is to the patient and to developing new cures. One senior HR professional who previously worked in tech told me, "I had to lay people off and not a single person cared about what their severance was or about COBRA, they were concerned about their research -- they had to make sure that everything was documented in lab notebooks so it could continue without them." My son is similar to your daughter, and he now tells me that he gets in arguments with his 20-something friends about it now. He defends the biopharma industry and asks them, "Where do you think new treatments come from?" I have always felt that we needed better industry PR. If there's anything I can do, Ted W. Love, MD, sign me up! We have to educate the public so they understand how vital our industry is.
Tilton Little
7mo
Certainly some of this (not all, of course) comes from a trickle-down effect of how the pharmaceutical industry is so often (and lazily) made the villainous entity in TV/films. It happens each year in films and it's easy for a subconscious negative perception to form and spread in a 21st century/online viral fashion...a point about that was made in the Boston Globe a while back: https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/07/30/biotechs-from-bad-worst/lWP7J32rgF9qdgcwRYTeJJ/story.html Films like Lorenzo's Oil and Extraordinary Measures (about John F. Crowley's journey) should be championed more about the dedication that's given to help those we love and those in need.
Involvement of the patient community at the initial stages of the processes of drug development and having them at the centre of the processes will address the public perspective of pharma industry. Indeed pharmaceutical industry does an extraordinary job of ensuring patients get quality care and so this should be coupled with seeing patients as key stakeholders than recipients of the drugs pharma produces. My opinion as a patient advocate living with chronic hepatitis B and urgently waiting on pharma to get the cure for this silent killer. Ted W. Love, MD
Lora Ruth Wogu
6mo
It will make a huge difference if the public is more aware of the work, passion and commitment the pharma industry has towards improving the lives of patients and how many in the field are human too and have compassion. Having liaised with some great people in the Global Blood Therapeutics during its short time in Europe, we met some amazing people in your team. But building trust among the patient community, and carers is still a major challenge.
Steve Evans
7mo
Wow! This is so true, I have encountered this misperception time and time again. Have a look at Life Science Cares...I just did...you will be elevated. Intuitively it seems true that the life sciences are packed with people with good intent. There are of course the notable exceptions who augment the misperception, but I concur with the thesis that life sciences are an exceptional and untapped resource to start changing perceptions by doing good.
Thanks for sharing Ted. So true that we need to do a better job to explain our work
Kurt Calia
6mo
I can think of no one better to lead this effort. This is great, Ted. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that she went to a college that really teaches folks how to think and critically analyze. And thus perhaps something to do with the person that encouraged her to go there. OK, in all seriousness, this is so important and so overdue.
Gerry Fleming
6mo
Great read, thank you. The folks providing the solutions don't seem to get the accolades they deserve. The effort that does into the pharma process is excruciating. Please continue this dialog!
Cherie Butts
6mo
Completely agree, Ted W. Love, MD- we must do better at communicating the interconnectedness and importance of biopharma efforts!
Ted W. Love, MD Thank you for this post. When it comes to insightfulness, clearly “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” 😀 I had a similar conversation with my daughter regarding this disconnect. She noticed a subtle difference in reaction when she said her father was a ‘physican’ vs when she said her father was a ‘drug developer’. Both are true. Leaving my practice to develop medications for patients not adequately served by the current options seems equally noble and dignified. But to her friends, not so much. Let’s face it. IRA was not a sucker punch; it was a counter punch. Our industry has failed to police itself. A few bad actors with egregious pricing stunts made things far worse, but that does not absolve us from looking in the mirror and asking ourselves if we are providing value to our customers? IRA happened because our customers were screaming "Uncle!". IRA is flawed in lots of ways. PBMs are not helping. But at the end of the day, to be valued, we must provide VALUE. Greenlight projects that provide value, price according to value, police ourselves. Our industry provides an extraordinary contribution to society. Our daughters should not be the only ones to see that.