AstraZeneca once again in the top ranking

This year marks the seventh consecutive win that the pharmaceutical's Managed Health Care (MHC) division has clinched - an impressive track record to be sure.

The ranking was conferred by funders and providers alike in the confidence ranking. A combined 59 key managed health opinion leaders were surveyed, of which 36 were funders and 23 were providers, and invited to rank the 37 participating pharmaceutical companies. Out of 24 multinationals, AstraZeneca retained its seven-year standing as number one. The annual survey is designed to provide continuous, objective, and empirical feedback on the level of confidence ethical pharmaceutical companies enjoy among the medical profession when compared to their competitors.

According to Campbell Belman spokesperson, Pamela Belman, the rankings of some years ago has certainly changed dramatically and multinationals are no longer as prominent in the Pharmaceutical Industry as they once were. She adds that they no longer have the luxury of only contending with each other but are faced with the Generic companies who have grabbed a significant part of the market.

“Managed Healthcare, which plays an ever increasing role in the usage of brands, is a key challenge,” says Belman. “It has always been important to any company which market brands, and particularly in the Pharmaceutical Industry, to make use of its good reputation to help motivate its brands' selection over other companies' brands. Now with the fierce competition in the market, it is critical that companies make sure they build and nurture their reputations.”

As a company, AstraZeneca subscribes to the notion that there is significant value in maintaining a “good name”, believing that confidence in an ethical company may be one of the most important points of difference in marketing its brands. According to AstraZeneca National MHC Manager, Peter Cave, nurturing its reputation across all stakeholder groups is at the core of AstraZeneca's purpose. We take seriously the assessment by funders and providers as published in the report, using the feedback as an opportunity to address both real and perceived weaknesses in our approach. “It also gives us the opportunity to further build on strengths to become more attractive to the market using the Confidence Predictor's diagnostic feedback tool designed to provide such assessments.”

Commenting on the seventh successful ranking, Belman says: “Historically, AstraZeneca was one of the first Multinationals to recognise that Managed Health Care would be a major force in the pharmaceutical market in South Africa and immediately made a strong commitment to develop its relations with this key group. It has continued with this commitment and each year for the past seven years its top position in Managed Health Care has been confirmed by the Campbell Belman results.”

“The survey recognises that we have maintained strong confidence and sentiment among our funder and provider stakeholders. Furthermore, notable strengths identified include the quality of our key account managers; trust in the company, products, communication, future prospects, service and support,” says Cave.

Dr Guni Goolab, CEO of AstraZeneca South Africa says, “We value the feedback from this survey and in an effort to refine our market offering, put the information to good use. This has largely contributed to our ongoing success as the fastest growing pharmaceutical company in South Africa. It is AstraZeneca's strategic intention to continue developing its co-operation with funders and providers to enable it to deliver cost-effective medicines to a wider number of patients.”

Campbell Belman is an independent analytics company and conducts its annual MHC Confidence Predictor/Confidence Development survey among funders and providers on behalf of ethical pharmaceutical companies.

For AstraZeneca the relevance of this ranking lies in yet another vote of confidence from the industry of which the company is very proud.

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with a broad range of products in seven therapeutic areas, including gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology, pain and anaesthesia and infection.

For further information visit www.astrazeneca.co.za