Download our White Paper: Developing the High-Performance Medical Affairs Function Clients and Partners: 3M Pharmaceuticals Abbott Laboratories Allergan Amgen AstraZeneca Aventis BASF Baxter Bayer Biogen Boehringer Ingelheim Bristol-Myers Squibb Chiron Eisai Eli Lilly and Company Forest Laboratories Galderma Genentech GlaxoSmithKline Hoffmann-La Roche Janssen Pharmaceutica Johnson & Johnson Medtronic Merck Millennium Pharmaceuticals Monsanto Novartis Novo Nordisk Ortho Biotech Philips Medical Systems Pfizer Purdue Roche Sankyo Pharma Solvay Pharmaceuticals Takeda Tap Pharmaceuticals Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Our Methodology

Using our proprietary Best Practice Blueprints for Excellence methodology, Best Practices' analysts and consultants first help our clients assess their existing processes and performance systems. Following the completion of internal practice collection, Best Practices, LLC and the client team members confer to prioritize the issues and areas that will have greatest economic, scientific, clinical, operational or strategic benefit. An action plan is then developed and used to guide the benchmarking project and performance improvement plans.
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Featured Research

Managing the Medical Affairs Department

Numerous industry-wide studies have examined the key components of a company’s medical affairs capabilities (e.g. medical science liaisons, clinical operations, etc.). However, no study has approached medical affairs in its totality. Best Practices, LLC undertook this study with two major objectives: 1) to benchmark and assess a full spectrum of medical affairs capabilities currently deployed at leading pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology companies; 2) to establish critical performance benchmarks, and 3) to identify winning practices and key lessons learned for building best-in-class medical affairs capabilities.

The study focused primarily on companies’ medical affairs capabilities that support the U.S. and European markets. It covered three key management areas, all of which are critical to the operational efficiency and effectiveness of medical affairs functions in driving value:

§ Organizational Structures and Processes: How do companies define, structure, govern and coordinate medical affairs activities?
§ Staffing, Outsourcing and Spending: What level of human and financial resources do companies provide to medical affairs functions? At what level are medical affairs capabilities outsourced?
§ Performance Measurement: How do companies measure and manage the efficiency and effectiveness of the medical affairs function?

Pharmaceutical companies look to Best Practices, LLC to help them understand the key drivers affecting their ability to develop a high-performance Medical Affairs function. Our research provides insights into the effective strategies and tactics that others have used that can directly support an organization’s drive to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Our research indicates that with a carefully crafted strategy and excellent execution, thought leader management (sometimes called "field-based medical") programs have an enormous impact upon building and developing thought leader relationships. Indeed, many of the most highly respected bio-pharmaceutical companies now use these programs as their primary channel to contact medical thought leaders. To deliver maximum value, these programs must be managed as integrated processes that successfully develop and expand relationships. Then, high-performing companies must measure the results of their field-based medical program efforts and identify opportunities for continuous improvement. This Best Practices in Field-Based Medical Management project identifies the top practices shared by benchmark partners, which your company can use to guide thinking about your own thought leader relationship management processes.

Companies that have successfully implemented field-based medical management describe a set of key benefits: they create more meaningful relationships with thought leaders and key opinion leaders; they more consistently win key investigators into clinical trials; they glean deeper insights into rapidly changing medical guidelines and market dynamics; they work with thought leaders to develop better clinical trial protocols; they harvest more useful results from trials; they achieve faster product development cycles; they conduct better health outcomes research, and they help enhance value from products through additional indications and improvements. Your company can use the results of such a study to make meaningful improvements in your field-based medical programs to address current needs; you can then begin to implement a best-in-class system in the longer-term.

Building Relationships with Professional and Advocacy Groups

Pharmaceutical companies have long understood the importance of creating relationships with physicians who prescribe their products. In recent years, a new set of stakeholders has emerged as an important factor in the prescription process – physicians leading key professional groups and patients spearheading important advocacy groups. In the age of direct-to-consumer advertisements and health information on the Internet, patients have become partners in the treatment decision. Informed patients have given rise to patient advocacy groups and patient-physician hybrid organizations. These groups are becoming more powerful as they take advantage of Web-based technologies that facilitate communication and aid in organizing their efforts. This market evolution has increased the need for pharmaceutical companies to coordinate activities with external groups and is raising the stakes for advocacy relations. While adding complexity, this growth also has created significant opportunities for pharmaceutical companies, professional societies and patient advocacy groups to create mutually beneficial relationships. To take full advantage of the maturing of external health-related groups, pharmaceutical companies need to maximize the effectiveness of structure, coordination, performance measurement and training for Professional and Advocacy Relations (PAR) efforts.

Best Practices, LLC undertook this study to find the optimal methods for structuring, coordinating and measuring a PAR function. Best Practices, LLC assembled a benchmark class of high-performing bio- pharmaceutical companies to answer the following questions:

§ Structure: In which functional area does PAR sit? Who owns the relationship with each professional or patient advocacy group?
§ Coordination: What methods are in place to align PAR efforts with various functional stakeholders, including brand teams, franchises, medical, marketing and corporate affairs? What tactics are used to prioritize and coordinate PAR efforts across the company?
§ Activity Execution and Performance Measurement: What factors are key to success in executing activities with professional and patient advocacy groups? What measurements do companies employ to determine the success of PAR efforts and activities?
§ Recruiting and Training: What are the skills and training needed for employees to create successful relationships with professional and patient advocacy groups?

Relationships with patient advocacy groups and professional organizations contribute to disease state and product awareness, rapid market education, access to information and care, and enhanced medical practice. Consequently, companies seek to understand the structures, coordination mechanisms and tactics that lead to successful, long-term relationships.

Contact Us

For more information, please contact:

Chris Bogan, President & CEO
(919) 403-0251 ext. 228
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Cameron Tew, Manager, Publishing and Research Operations
(919) 403-0251 ext. 246
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