Publication
Title
In the land of pharma: a qualitative analysis of the reputational discourse of the pharmaceutical industry
Author
Abstract
The pharmaceutical industry has been battling a negative reputation and has been confronted with accusations such as putting profits before patients and manipulating clinical trial results. In this study, we focus on how pharmaceutical companies address what we define as the Bad Pharma discourse. Drawing on interviews, press releases, corporate documentation and ethnographic fieldwork, we analyse the main themes that are used by the Belgian pharmaceutical industry to construct its reputational discourse, and we focus on how this discourse is shaped by the Bad Pharma discourse. Our results illustrate that on the one hand, the industry contests the Bad Pharma discourse by generating an alternative discourse. On the other hand, they also partly embrace and reframe this Bad Pharma discourse. This way, current societal debates are entextualised in the reputational discourses of the pharmaceutical industry.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Public Relations Inquiry
Publication
2018
ISSN
2046-147X
DOI
10.1177/2046147X18774588
Volume/pages
7 :2 (2018) , p. 127-147
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Publication type
Subject
External links
Record
Identifier
Creation 24.10.2023
Last edited 24.10.2023
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