Good Business
The World’s Most Loathed Industry Gave Us a Vaccine in Record Time
At least one thing went right in 2020: Pharmaceutical companies came through. Thank you, science.
Photographer: Ian Loring Shiver for Bloomberg Businessweek; Prop stylist: David Probasco
At the end of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic started, the two best-known faces of the pharmaceutical business were the imprisoned Martin Shkreli and the lawsuit-laden opioid makers at Purdue Pharma LP. The rest of the industry was perhaps best known for the skyrocketing prices of its medicines. In a Gallup Poll of the public’s view of various business sectors, pharma was ranked at the bottom, behind the oil industry, advertising and public relations, and lawyers.