By Mary Kangley 
March’s Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies mentioned by HCPs on Twitter
| Mar | Feb | Company | Total Mentions | Account mentions | Account retweets | Number of Twitter accounts mentioned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Gilead | 2251 | 1124 | 26 | 1 |
| 2 | 8 | Roche | 1711 | 878 | 48 | 10 |
| 3 | 18 | Abbott | 1075 | 1074 | 885 | 3 |
| 4 | 21 | Biogen | 744 | 29 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 | 1 | Johnson & Johnson* | 589 | 306 | 134 | 20 |
| 6 | 4 | Novartis | 438 | 159 | 78 | 10 |
| 7 | 2 | Sanofi | 365 | 170 | 77 | 13 |
| 8 | 27 | Teva | 360 | 138 | 78 | 8 |
| 9 | 26 | Regenero | 326 | 172 | 17 | 1 |
| 10 | 9 | Bayer | 293 | 79 | 48 | 7 |
| 11 | 5 | GSK | 257 | 127 | 62 | 7 |
| 12 | 6 | Pfizer | 194 | 90 | 40 | 9 |
| 13 | 20 | Mylan | 137 | 13 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | 10 | Lilly | 104 | 47 | 21 | 2 |
| 15 | 17 | AbbVie | 85 | 49 | 3 | 7 |
| 16 | 7 | Merck & co | 76 | 53 | 7 | 2 |
| 17 | 15 | Takeda | 66 | 21 | 4 | 6 |
| 18 | 11 | AstraZeneca | 49 | 30 | 6 | 5 |
| 19 | 39 | Grifols | 48 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | 12 | Novo Nordisk | 42 | 32 | 11 | 5 |
| 21 | 23 | Fresenius | 27 | 6 | 5 | 2 |
| 22 | 13 | Boehringer | 19 | 18 | 11 | 4 |
| 23 | 41 | Sun | 18 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| 24 | 32 | CSL | 15 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | 42 | Menarini | 15 | 12 | 9 | 2 |
| 26 | 16 | Amgen | 14 | 15 | 7 | 5 |
| 27 | 36 | Daiichi-Sankyo | 11 | 8 | 3 | 3 |
| 28 | 14 | BMS | 8 | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| 29 | 35 | Bausch | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | 25 | UCB | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 31 | 31 | Ipsen | 5 | 5 | 7 | 2 |
| 32 | 22 | Allergan | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 33 | 24 | Merck KGaA | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 34 | 43 | Celgene | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 | 29 | Vertex | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 36 | 30 | Astellas | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 37 | 19 | Eisai | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 | 28 | Servier | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 50 | 38 | Otsuka | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| 50 | 45 | Shire** | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 37 | Ferring | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 47 | Chugai | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 40 | Alexion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 33 | Stada arzneimittel | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 50 | 34 | Mallinckrodt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 46 | Sumitomo dainippon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Jiangsu hengrui | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 44 | Endo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Mitsubishi tanabe pharma | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Sino | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
In March 2020, CREATION Pinpoint® identified 8,087 healthcare professional (HCP) authored tweets about COVID-19 from 5,110 individual HCPs mentioning a top-50 pharmaceutical company (according to revenue). This is an increase in total HCP mentions of pharmaceutical companies compared to previous months, which included all mentions of a top-50 pharma company on Twitter.
Over half of all COVID-19 specific HCP mentions in top 50 pharmaceutical companies in March were in relation to diagnosis and testing of COVID-19.
The five pharmaceutical companies that were mentioned the most by HCPs relating to COVID-19 on Twitter in March 2020 were Gilead, Roche, Abbott, Biogen and Johnson and Johnson (J&J).
Mentions of Gilead had nearly quadrupled since February as HCPs discussed their potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, many asking for compassionate use.
Dear #medtwitter I need help. Two physicians at Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn are fighting COVID 19 in MICU. It would be highly appreciated if anyone can help get Remdesivir from Gilead Sciences for compassionate use .
— Girish Nadkarni (@girish_nadkarni) March 21, 2020
Both Roche and Abbott mentions were driven by FDA approvals of their COVID-19 tests, with volume of posts spiking at these announcements.
BREAKING: We’re launching a test that can detect COVID-19 in as little as 5 minutes—bringing rapid testing to the frontlines. https://t.co/LqnRpPpqMM pic.twitter.com/W8jyN2az8G
— Abbott (@AbbottNews) March 27, 2020
The conversation online has increased since the beginning of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CREATION.co continues to track this online discussion and recently ran two webinars sharing advice for health communicators in government, NGOs and pharmaceutical companies during the pandemic:
- Coronavirus Digital Communications Strategies for NGOs, governments and health policy.
- Coronavirus Digital Communication Strategies for pharma.
READ LAST MONTH’S TOP 50 PHARMA TRACKER:
Top 50 Pharma Tracker: New year begins with failed trials and successful podcast launch
Methodology notes:
- In March 2020, CREATION Pinpoint® identified 8,087 healthcare professional (HCP) authored tweets about COVID-19 from 5,110 individual HCPs mentioning a top-50 pharmaceutical company (according to revenue).
- Data for this research was analysed from the online Twitter conversations of HCPs in relation to COVID-19 in all languages mentioning a Top 50 pharmaceutical company between March 1st and March 31st 2020.
- Unless otherwise specified, mentions of a company are not limited to its Twitter account(s).
- In some cases, a tweet may mention more than one company account (eg. @abbottnews and @abbottglobal) – this only counts as one Company Mention but two Account Mentions.
- The Number of Twitter Accounts Mentioned only include those accounts mentioned by HCPs.
- * Johnson & Johnson was included as a whole, encompassing its pharmaceutical subsidiary, Janssen.
- ** Whilst included in the Top 50 Pharma list according to revenue from 2019, Shire has since been acquired by Takeda and no longer holds a Twitter account.
