04.05.2021 | Tracker

HCPs reassure the public as they discuss COVID-19 vaccine side effects

By Maria Aguirre

Engaging the digital healthcare professional

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.

April’s Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies mentioned by HCPs on Twitter

June RankingMay RankingCompany
Name
Total
Mentions
Account
Mentions
Account
Retweets
11Pfizer32,4451,36335
22AstraZeneca15,11346719
33Johnson & Johnson4,95171496
416Biogen1,8545406
54GSK60819647
69Novartis52338555
711Gilead4391399
88Roche40715759
918Regeneron393652
106Sanofi37119640
1112Novo Nordisk35427322
1210Bayer34316213
135Merck & Co312247101
147Abbott28927512
1513Lilly2061211
1615BMS1841623
1717Boehringer Ingelheim17714317
1832Mylan15020
1914AbbVie1338213
2023Otsuka11380
2119Fresenius796326
2220Amgen776218
2324UCB716629
2437Eisai64280
2521Takeda57503
2622Teva524732
2726Merck KGaA47409
2829Servier45325
2930CSL40376
3028Chugai3691
3133Alexion34243
3225Ipsen332111
3338Daiichi Sankyo32214
3635Astellas20151
3640Bausch2030
3634Allergan2010
3727Menarini16146
3936Vertex15150
3931Grifols1500
4039Sun830
4141Sumitomo Dainippon100
5050Yunnan Baiyao000
5050Shanghai000
5050Meiji000
5050Jiangsu Hengrui000
5050Endo000
5050Aurobindo000
5050Ono000
5050Sino000
5050Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma000

April’s insights from HCPs mentioning the Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies

During the month of April 2021, the most talked about pharmaceutical companies by healthcare professionals (HCPs) on Twitter moderately changed from the previous month. The four most talked about companies remained the same, while the company Merck & Co made it to the fifth place. The final ranking was AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson (J&J), GSK, and Merck & Co.

Top 50 Pharma discussed online

This month HCPs continued discussing the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines when mentioning pharmaceutical companies on Twitter. Blood clots as a possible side effect from their COVID-19 vaccine drove AstraZeneca mentions. While some HCPs only shared articles addressing the development of blood clots in patients after receiving the vaccine, others shared their opinions and advocated for people to get the vaccine by saying that benefits outweigh the risks.

AstraZeneca however was not the only company mentioned due to side effects developed from vaccines. On April 13, a spike in conversation was generated after the FDA & CDC issued a halt on the J&J COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, increasing mentions about J&J and positioning the company as the third most mentioned this month.

In April, the volume of HCP posts about top 50 pharma companies increased when compared to the month of March. This was due primarily to the discussion about blood clots as side effects from the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine; the company mentions increased by 60% from last month.

The three most shared links by HCPs in April were:

  1. New York Times article about Katalin Kariko, whose mRNA vaccines research was praised by HCPs since she was able to influence the development of the COVID-19 Pfizer and Moderna vaccines despite not having a lab or grants.
  2. news article from EMA (European Medicines Agency) showing they have found a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and unusual blood clots.
  3. A CNN news article addressing an ongoing trial that shows the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after six months.

Top 50 Pharma discussed online

The volume of COVID-19 conversation in the context of top 50 pharma increased from March to April by 7%, and it made up 77% of the overall HCP conversation in April.

Outside of the COVID-19 conversation, HCPs also used their social media channels to discuss and bring awareness of different topics. HCPs in India mentioned Roche when discussing a shortage issue for their drug tocilizumab and asked the NHA (National Health Authority) for support, and Eli Lilly was mentioned due to the safety and efficacy of their drug, selpercatinib, for the treatment of all cancers.

CREATION.co continues to analyse online HCP conversation on a variety of topics including virtual congresshealthcare changes since the pandemicproduct development and therapy area specific insights.

To stay up to date, you can sign up to CREATION.co’s monthly eJournal.

  • In April 2021, CREATION Pinpoint® identified 90,475 healthcare professional (HCP) authored tweets from 24,312 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 all languages mentioning a Top 50 pharmaceutical company between April 1st and April 30th 2021.
  • 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 and Account Mention.
  • Johnson & Johnson was included as a whole, encompassing its pharmaceutical subsidiary, Janssen. In April, 3,878 of these posts mentioned Janssen.

The Top 50 Pharma tracker archive

View all articles >

Meet the Author

Maria Aguirre

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