Vaccine heroes? COVID-19 pitfalls, pricing put pharma on the spot

Pharma is looking to reset its image with COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, but landmines loom—with pricing likely the biggest. The halo from pharma’s rapid response in research and discovery—and the hope that a vaccine or effective treatments will allow the world to return to some sort of normal—has propelled the industry’s reputation at an all-time high. Forty percent of Americans say their opinion of the pharma industry has turned positive during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Harris Poll. However, pricing lurks just beyond the lab. Just this week in media, one well-known pundit posited in a Forbes column that the industry’s reputation hinges on the pricing of Gilead Sciences' treatment remdesivir, while another touted Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla’s promise to not price its vaccine too high in part because “people will not forget if you do that.”