By Mary Kangley 
Discover what healthcare professionals (HCPs) think about pharmaceutical products and their manufacturers, as it happens, through CREATION.co’s tracking updates. How are HCPs responding to drug launch news? How are HCPs talking about or engaging with the Top 50 pharma companies on social media? Each week CREATION.co’s tracking updates bring you the latest insights from the conversation of HCPs across the globe discussing these topics and more.
May’s Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies mentioned by HCPs on Twitter, in relation to COVID-19
| May rank | April rank | Company name | Total mentions | Account mentions | Account retweets | Number of accounts mentioned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Gilead | 1,283 | 162 | 21 | 1 |
| 2 | 6 | Roche | 596 | 92 | 23 | 5 |
| 3 | 4 | Johnson & Johnson* | 483 | 382 | 207 | 17 |
| 4 | 8 | Pfizer | 459 | 165 | 40 | 6 |
| 5 | 3 | Sanofi | 440 | 136 | 44 | 12 |
| 6 | 7 | AstraZeneca | 397 | 123 | 19 | 4 |
| 7 | 2 | GSK | 371 | 155 | 48 | 6 |
| 8 | 5 | Novartis | 154 | 91 | 30 | 8 |
| 9 | 14 | Novo Nordisk | 89 | 88 | 16 | 5 |
| 10 | 12 | Merck & co | 86 | 57 | 26 | 4 |
| 11 | 20 | Takeda | 71 | 61 | 7 | 3 |
| 12 | 10 | Bayer | 48 | 20 | 7 | 3 |
| 13 | 25 | Menarini | 47 | 39 | 20 | 1 |
| 14 | 9 | Abbott | 46 | 44 | 17 | 2 |
| 15 | 15 | Lilly | 39 | 23 | 3 | 2 |
| 16 | 16 | Biogen | 39 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | 13 | Teva | 33 | 31 | 13 | 2 |
| 18 | 18 | Boehringer | 33 | 27 | 8 | 2 |
| 19 | 17 | Amgen | 30 | 26 | 14 | 5 |
| 20 | 19 | Fresenius | 25 | 11 | 8 | 3 |
| 21 | 11 | Regenero | 20 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| 22 | 21 | BMS | 20 | 11 | 7 | 1 |
| 23 | 27 | AbbVie | 17 | 8 | 0 | 2 |
| 24 | 23 | CSL | 16 | 11 | 7 | 2 |
| 25 | 34 | Grifols | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | 30 | Vertex | 11 | 11 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | 29 | Merck KGaA | 10 | 9 | 0 | 2 |
| 28 | 26 | Mylan | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | 31 | UCB | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 30 | 39 | Eisai | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | 22 | Daiichi-Sankyo | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| 32 | 43 | Sun | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | 32 | Ipsen | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 34 | 38 | Servier | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 | 24 | Astellas | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 36 | 35 | Allergan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 | 28 | Bausch | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 | 41 | Otsuka | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | 33 | Alexion | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 40 | 36 | Mallinckrodt | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | 37 | Celgene | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | 40 | Stada arzneimittel | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 43 | 42 | Chugai | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Shire** | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Ferring | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Sumitomo dainippon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Jiangsu hengrui | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Endo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Mitsubishi tanabe pharma | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 50 | Sino | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
May’s insights from HCPs mentioning the Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies, in relation to COVID-19
In May 2020, the five pharmaceutical companies that were mentioned the most by HCPs relating to Covid-19 on Twitter were Gilead, Roche, Johnson and Johnson (J&J), Pfizer and Sanofi.
For a third month, Gilead was the most mentioned pharmaceutical company relating to Covid-19. Its treatment candidate, remdesivir, was discussed in over 70% of posts as HCPs reacted to the FDA’s emergency authorisation and associated data at the beginning of the month. Following this news and Gilead’s donation of their supply of the product to the US government, HCPs shared their experiences of the supply chain.
So we have all been holding our breath. Hoping to get #remdesvir #EUA for #COVID19 via #US government #supplychain after #Gilead donation. By this AM, only 25 hospitals approved (red). All the blue dots (eg @UCSF) have been refused so far. Crossing fingers & waiting 🤞 pic.twitter.com/B86spseR4n
— Peter Chin-Hong MD (@PCH_SF) May 6, 2020
Other key drivers in the conversation were Pfizer’s collaborative vaccine candidate and Roche’s FDA emergency-approved antibody test kit. HCPs were positively anticipating these developments, willing their respective success.
GOOD NEWS: Coronavirus vaccine is now currently being tried in healthy human volunteers in USA.
The vaccines were made by Germany’s BioNTech and New York-based Pfizer at @nyuniversity Researchers at NY University Grossmam School of medicine worked on it.
We pray for good news!
— #OurFavOnlineDoc 🩺 🇬🇧 (@DrOlufunmilayo) May 5, 2020
Roche!! Huge game changer….what a great test they developed. REPORTEDLY 100% sensitivity and 99.8% specificity for antibodies. #COVIDー19 #antibodytest
— Andrew Rudin MD (@AndrewRudinMD) May 3, 2020
On average, HCPs use a company’s Twitter handle in around 40% of these posts. In the top 15 most mentioned companies, Novo Nordisk, Abbott, Takeda and Menarini (who jumped 12 ranks since last month) proportionally received the most mentions with an account tag this month.
First patient randomized by @nordsjaelhosp in #COVID_STEROID_trial
9 🇩🇰 hospitals have recruited 25 pts
Sites in🇸🇪🇨🇭🇮🇳 to bring us closer to better evidence for steroid use in #Covid_19 https://t.co/2NLeyax0vn@CRIC_Int_Care @novonordiskfond pic.twitter.com/EvOFLNwUVy— Anders Perner (@AndersPerner) May 26, 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.
