Our Industry’s Public Image

Last week the Public Affairs Council released a new pulse survey on what Americans think about business and government.

Unfortunately for us – the industry considered the most untrustworthy was pharmaceuticals.

This finding was unsurprisingly consistent with a Gallup poll last year reporting that a record-high 60% of those surveyed view our industry negatively.

The recent Public Affairs Council survey also shared that 40% believe pharma needs more government oversight.

OK, so far all that tracks, right?

Well, if we look at the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, we see that two-thirds of those surveyed in the US say that science has become politicized in our country.

Rates are similar in other countries, too.

Moreover, confidence in innovations like gene-based medicine increases when shown to be vetted by scientists and ethicists.

To us, who are on the front lines of the scientific breakthroughs we see every day, there’s a huge discrepancy here.

On one hand, we have deep distrust of our industry – or at least, what they THINK they know about biopharma – but on the other many say that science is too politicized.

What gives?

For starters, any ground we gained during the pandemic painting our industry as being on the bleeding edge has pretty much been lost.

What’s more is that the general public doesn’t equate pharma with science, that those are two words that don’t even belong in the same sentence.

That’s a problem – not just for the industry’s future, but perhaps more importantly, for the medicines that our orgs and clients are developing.

How do we reconcile deep distrust of our industry with society’s appetite for less-politicized and more highly vetted science?