The Most Trustworthy Drugs on the Market: Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Bayer AG (BAYN)

However, there are some outliers. For example, Roche‘s Rituxan had a Trust Index score of 73 — lower than any other rheumatoid arthritis drug in the survey. However, sales for Rituxan were much higher than several drugs with higher trust scores. Also, while Humira and Enbrel tied with Trust Index scores of 83 each, AbbVie outsold rivals Amgen and Pfizer by more than 13% last year.

The osteoporosis category also has a few seeming anomalies. Warner Chilcott’s Actonel scored 71 on the Trust Index, enough to lead in the category but lower than all drugs in the other categories. Evista and Forteo from Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) lagged Actonel by a couple of points on the trust score. However, both drugs achieved annual sales of over $1 billion — more than double the sales recorded by Actonel.

Overall, though, higher trust scores generally corresponded to higher sales levels. That’s just as we would expect.

Trustworthy
How can this information help investors? Assuming the findings of the Harris survey are on target, pharmaceutical companies that forge strong connections with physicians can build higher levels of trust even if their drugs aren’t necessarily viewed as the strongest. The companies with the highest Trust Index scores were Pfizer, AbbVie and Amgen. It’s no accident that their drugs also boasted some of the strongest sales results. Each of these company’s stocks are worthy of investors’ consideration.

Of the three, I like AbbVie the most for 2013. The company has a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 11.4 and pays a nice dividend of 4.4%. Things might get dicey in the next few years, because Humira loses patent protection at the end of 2016. For now, though, my view is that AbbVie should rate as a trustworthy investment.

The article The Most Trustworthy Drugs on the Market originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Keith Speights.

Fool contributor Keith Speights has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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