Only 25% of the respondents said that they currently trust drug companies “a lot” (3%) or “somewhat” (22%) when it comes to pricing their products fairly, which “is a significant decrease from 41% who said they trusted pharmaceutical companies to price their products fairly back in 2008,” Kaiser said in a recent Health Tracking Poll.
Safety issues were also a bit of a sore point in the current survey: Less than half of the 1,440 adults responding said that they trusted pharmaceutical companies a lot (10%) or somewhat (37%) regarding informing the public quickly when a safety concern is discovered.
Trust was more forthcoming when people were asked about the development of new, effective drugs – 71% expressed a favorable opinion – and companies’ offering “reliable information about side effects and safety of drugs,” which received a favorable response from 65% of those surveyed during Feb. 14 to Feb. 24, 2019.
A majority of respondents (61%) also thought that pharmaceutical companies could be trusted to “offer reliable information about how well their drugs work,” the report’s authors noted.
The lack of trust expressed regarding drug pricing also may explain why most consumers (80%) said that drug company profits were a major contributor to the cost of prescription drugs. The cost of research and development, at 69%, was the next most commonly mentioned factor, followed by profits made by pharmacy benefit managers at 63%, according to the report.