It continues to be a rather strikingly ironic observation that for some the pharmaceutical industry continues to be in the depths of public perceptions despite the fact that it is an industry that provides life and alleviates suffering to so many. One reason, of course, is because many in the public do not like the business practices of the industry and policy-makers do not feel that the industry achieves enough transparency. But one other observation is noteworthy – the industry is involved in a huge philanthropic effort to ensure medicines for many of those in dire need both in the U.S. and in the developing world, but public awareness of that fact is extremely low in spite of the fact that it is a value the public esteems highly.
One of the reasons for that is that members of the industry are very aware of the extent of these philanthropic efforts and believe others are too. But they aren’t, and industry would do well to quantify and qualify those efforts as much as possible and through as many means as possible.
This week, Abbott put a video up on its YouTube channel Abbott1888 that portrays one aspect of its philanthropy. GSK has done the same, though since they don’t allow embedding of videos, it can be shared – which when you think about it, is truly ironic. Here is the Abbott video. It is a good start, but only the beginning of a much larger job.
