Drug industry executives and advisers told a conference in Sydney last week that the poor public standing of the industry was hindering its ability to sell its products at higher prices to government agencies as well as its attempts to address public criticism.

Introducing a panel discussion on reputation management, Kristin Austin, director of the public relations company Ruder Finn, said that a review of coverage of the industry in the Sydney print media showed 30 positive stories in the preceding year but 40 critical stories.

“Each negative story requires six …