Why We Aren’t Evil – in one page

Is big pharma a bunch of scheming profiteers up to no good, out for themselves, rubbing their hands with glee every time a new disease emerges?

I think the answer is no, but it’s no thanks to the pharmaceutical industry that I have reached this conclusion.

Yesterday I suggested the big energy players needed a one-page guide, some neat bullet points, explaining what they do and why. How much they hand out in dividends and where those payments go, precisely.

(If they do have one, it should be stapled to all company announcements.) The drug sector needs that x5.

Today GlaxoSmithKline reported results, tomorrow it’s AstraZeneca’s turn. The results statements are written in code.

Now, these are seriously complicated businesses. The RNSs are going to be complex and many experts, investors and hacks alike, want that level of detail.

I think where big companies fail here, and the drug sector is absolutely the worst for this, is to forget that there are other audiences beyond investors and that results day is surely a good time to try and talk to them.

What are those profits for? How much did that life saving pill cost to invent?

If you’re a sector specialist, a pharma editor, you know all this. And presumably have good contacts with the right PR people.

If you’re just dipping in and out, getting to the right person is very difficult.

The Glaxo company website has a list of 11-flaks, eight of whom are director or manager of Global Media Relations. Which one do I want?

The contact numbers given are mostly just the same one repeated, a switchboard number, basically. Almost as if they don’t really want to talk to us.

All I wanted to ask was: tell us why you aren’t evil. It seems they would rather not say.