Health Study: Reputation Influences Prescribing Behavior

NEW RESEARCH FROM WE COMMUNICATIONS REVEALS TOP FACTORS MOST LIKELY TO INFLUENCE PHYSICIANS’ PRESCRIBING DECISIONS: DISEASE-SPECIFIC LEADERSHIP AND CORPORATE REPUTATION

NEW YORK, LONDON, SINGAPORE — Sept. 10, 2024 — Today, WE Communications (WE) released its latest Brands in Motion global study, “Reputation Rules: Unlocking Physician Prescribing Power.” The data reveals that, in instances where medicines are similar in safety, efficacy, price and other functional factors, physicians ranked a company’s leadership in a specific disease area and its overall corporate reputation as the top two factors when it comes to making prescribing decisions.

“Our new research is a natural extension of our Brands in Motion health report from the previous year, which first revealed the connection between corporate reputation and prescribing decisions,” said Stephanie Marchesi, president of WE Global Health. “We now unequivocally know that reputation — be it at the disease-specific level or at the corporate level — is a bottom-line business driver.”

Key insights from the new study include:

• Physicians agree that disease-specific leadership (59%) and corporate reputation (58%) are very or extremely influential on which medicine they choose to prescribe.
• 81% of physicians say that corporate reputation influences their perception of medicine value.
• Of the four biggest drivers of corporate reputation, physicians see "reliability and credibility" as the most important, ahead of “trust,” “transparency and communication” and “innovation.”

“Companies that invest in building their above-brand, disease-specific reputation will be able to speak beyond specific treatments and paint a more holistic, highly valued picture of their commitment to a therapeutic area — one that may prove influential in tipping the scales in favor of their treatments,” said Marchesi.

For pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies looking to improve their reputations, doubling down on their innovation narratives is often an underexplored communications opportunity. More than half of physicians say that investment in R&D is one of the factors that influence their trust in companies, and 47% identify being a leader in R&D innovation as one of the top actions that companies can do to improve their reputations.

Besides R&D, fighting to improve patient access to medicine (55%) can improve a company’s corporate reputation, with most physicians (91%) prepared to act to increase access. This includes closely partnering with companies, even as fewer than a third (27%) believe that companies are sufficiently transparent about drug pricing. Brands that court increased collaboration opportunities will open new avenues for healthcare communications.

"Reputation is at times mistakenly viewed as a soft asset in the healthcare industry, yet our survey has shown that it has clear bottom-line consequences,” said Marchesi. “It can make the difference between a physician writing a script for your treatment or not.”

ABOUT BRANDS IN MOTION

Partnering with Sapio Research, WE surveyed more than 500 physicians in six markets — including the United States — to understand their perspectives on the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.

“Reputation Rules: Unlocking Physician Prescribing Power” is part of WE’s Brands in Motion global research. Now in its eighth year, Brands in Motion has surveyed more than 100,000 consumers and business decision-makers about how perceptions shift over time.

ABOUT WE

WE is one of the largest independent communications agencies in the world. We’re all about people — both our clients and employees — and we believe in the power of communications to move audiences to positive action. Women-founded, women-led and fiercely independent, WE has spent more than four decades helping world-class brands tell technology-led transformation stories that shift perceptions and change behavior.

Our global reach includes a presence in more than 24 cities, partner networks that expand our footprint and client capabilities, and a team of more than 1,400 media and content strategists, creatives and data scientists across our technology, health and consumer sectors. Our work with global brands like Microsoft, McDonald’s and Volvo has been recognized by Cannes Lions, PRovoke Media SABRE Awards and PRWeek Awards, just to name a few.

For more information, press only: Kara Kraft, WE, (503) 443-7143, karak@we-worldwide.com