U.S. pharma brands jumped in value almost across the board in Brand Finance's annual look at the nation’s most valuable. The lone exception? Valeant Pharmaceuticals
While Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck & Co., AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb all gained brand value—$500 million, on average—Valeant dropped almost $1 billion. The embattled pharma went from $2.67 billion last year to just $1.48 billion in this year’s tally.
That's quite a turnabout: Just one year prior, Valeant had soared to join Pfizer at the top of the pharma chart, based at the time on its strategy of buying in drug development, with takeovers of Salix, Mercury Holdings and Sprout Pharmaceutical in 2015.
Brand value is different from reputation, which is why pharma could gain industrywide amid the drug-pricing controversy that raged almost all the way through 2016.
Brand Finance also tallies global brand value, and its worldwide pharma report, the top 10 global pharma brands, saw value increase unilaterally. Roche led global growth with a 56% increase in value at No. 1 and a $6.09 billion value.