The pharmaceutical industry is rated as the most negatively viewed industry in the United States, according to a new Gallup poll.
Every year Gallup tests the public’s opinion of 25 industries in the United States. This year the results showed that Americans are more than twice as likely to rate the pharmaceutical industry negatively (58%) as positively (27%). Big Pharmas net-positive score was -31.
The federal government came in as the second most poorly rated in the U.S., with a 52% negative rating and a 25% positive rating, leaving it was a net-positive score of -27.
The restaurant industry, with a total positive of 66% and total negative of 8%; the computer industry with a positive of 61% and a negative of 11%; and the grocery industry with a total positive of 58% and a total negative of 15% came in as the top three industries to be rated most positively.
Surprisingly the oil and gas industry, with its history of public distrust and poor ratings, came in as the fifth most poorly rated industry, with a total positive of 39% and a total negative of 36%, following the healthcare industry (38% positive and 48% negative) and the advertising and public relations industry (33% positive and 34% negative.)
Gallup notes that the federal government has “been last or tied for last from 2011 through 2018.” Over the past 19 years that Gallup has annually conducted the poll, less than a handful of companies have sunk as low as Big Pharma’s current -31 net rating.
According to Gallup:
The new low in the pharmaceutical industry’s U.S. image comes amid a range of criticisms of industry norms, from generating the highest drug costs in the world to spending massive amounts in lobbying politicians to the industry’s role in the U.S. opioid crisis. Several Democratic candidates have called out the industry in their party’s presidential debates.
With drug prices continuing to sore and the ongoing opioid epidemic and lawsuits associated with it, Gallup believes that the industry’s rating likely will not recover any time soon.
The poll results are from Gallup’s annual Work and Education poll that was conducted August 1-14, 2019.
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