Why the pharma industry needs to improve its reputation now

The pharmaceutical industry’s reputation is hurting. Earlier this year, Gallup released its annual poll of U.S. business sectors. According to the poll, only 28% of Americans view the pharma industry positively. And only one industry scored lower than ours: the federal government. In fact, positive views of our industry have been steadily declining over the last few years. This has to change.

It’s sometimes hard to imagine how we got to this point, when you consider the many amazing breakthroughs our industry has helped deliver over the last century. But the truth is that society has raised its expectations of us. The world is getting larger, older and sicker, and patients need our industry to discover new drugs to enhance the human condition. This is the reason our industry exists.

Some high-profile controversies, particularly related to the price of drugs, have done damage to our industry’s reputation. I believe that we need a new approach to address the cost of healthcare and the affordability of medicines. As an industry, we must shift to a model that focuses on value and outcomes delivered, both to patients and to healthcare systems. We need to cut out inefficiencies and waste in the system and focus on interventions that deliver the most value.

As I recently wrote in Forbes, we want to lead this change at Novartis. That is why we are looking at ways to better align prices with value, which I define using four pillars: the medical outcomes they achieve, the improved quality of life for patients and caregivers, the savings delivered to the healthcare system, and the overall societal benefit. It’s our responsibility to discover and develop breakthrough treatments, and find new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible. Our business model is to create value based on innovation.

Collaboration among patients, healthcare providers, payers and industry is required to create real transformation. Novartis is committed to actively looking for these opportunities in the form of outcomes-based agreements: we want to be rewarded based on the tangible health outcomes our products provide patients. There are a number of examples where we’ve partnered on such agreements for recently launched innovative medicines, such as Entresto?, Gilenya? and Tasigna?.

At the same time, we need to refocus on operating with the highest levels of integrity. This starts with our culture, which is dictated by each of us working in the industry. Collectively, we need to reward those who speak up and challenge things that aren’t right. This is a mindset we must all shift to.

At Novartis, we are making changes to ensure we demonstrate the highest standards of ethical business conduct. We have to make sure that our associates, no matter the situation they’re facing, will act with integrity and do the right thing.

For example, Novartis is rethinking our approach to medical education. Beginning next year, we will only sponsor physicians to speak on our company’s behalf in clearly-defined situations, for instance, when a new product becomes available, a new indication is added to an existing product, or significant new clinical data are released. On these occasions, doctors are best equipped to brief their peers on how a drug can be used safely and effectively – a crucial step in ensuring that the right patients can benefit from advances in treatment. At the same time, we are investing more than ever before in developing and adopting innovative digital communication tools that will provide a growing number of doctors around the world with important information about the safety and efficacy of our products. We’re also working to incentivize associates – including our field force – based on the values and behaviors we want to encourage.

Changing the culture of an industry is not easy, but it is up to each of us to hold ourselves and our colleagues to the highest ethical standards.