The Pharmaceutical companies are riding a Vaccine High

The Pharmaceutical companies are having a ball of a time like never before. The rapid rollout of Covid-19 vaccines has made Pfizer and AstraZeneca regularly used household names. The entire industry is also winning praise for its co-operation. The fragile nature of the public’s trust can be seen by some governments’ decision to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. This decision was followed after fears of possible blood clots due to the vaccine.

The public relations triumph could turn out to be a trap if poorly handled. The reputation of Big Pharma has been in dumps for years after the scandal series involving Medicare fraud. Apart from that, the improper payments to doctors and poorly tested drugs that damaged health are other issues that spoiled their reputation.

Recently, the opioid epidemic and high charges for new and old medicines have further alienated the public. The most profitable market was under political pressure in the US. However, Covid-19 changed all this. Since the beginning of 2020, the optimistic view of the sector in the US public’s eyes has doubled from 32% to 62%. This was the highest since the survey began in 2003, said Rob Jekielek, the managing director at The Harris Poll.

Also, 56% of the UK public told The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry that their view of the pharma industry has improved throughout the pandemic. Previously, the pharmaceutical companies were seen as greedy and anonymous corporations, were revealed to be full of responsible and hardworking scientists. The western regulators also allowed drugmakers to use shorter emergency approval procedures.