Collaborating with Patient Advocacy Groups to Educate the Marketplace

STUDY OVERVIEW

Patient and professional advocacy groups are an integral part of educating the marketplace on new medicines. Effectively collaborating with advocacy groups is fundamental for educating the public on treatment options and is especially critical for socially sensitive conditions/therapies. This benchmarking study identifies valuable practices in working with patient advocacy groups and managing relationships.

The research also examines ideal structures and skill sets for pharma groups that deal with advocacy groups. In addition, the study shares emerging trends and challenges in patient advocacy. Executives and managers who work with pharma groups that interact with advocacy groups can use this study to compare their approaches and tactics for advocacy group interactions with those of leading organizations.

KEY TOPICS

• Understanding the Advocacy Landscape
• Managing Advocacy Relationships
• Managing Relationships with Hostile Groups
• Advocacy Communication Practices
• Structuring High Performance Biopharma Advocacy Groups
• Critical Competencies for Advocacy Liaisons
• Advocacy Tools - How to Use Tools to Manage Relationships
• Using New Technologies
• Advocacy and Product Launch
• Current Trends and Future Directions

• Tactics to Minimize Opposition from Patient Advocacy/Special Interest Groups
• Critical Considerations when Managing Advocacy Collaborations regarding Controversial Therapies
• Effective Market Education Approaches for Controversial Conditions
• Common Biopharma Patient Advocacy Group Structures
• Effective Communication Approaches for Advocacy Interactions with Pharma
• Effectiveness Measures for Pharma Advocacy Group Activities and Relationships
• Number of FTEs Dedicated to Patient Advocacy Activities
• Methods for Prioritizing Objectives When Advocacy Groups work with Multiple Brands
• Rating Importance of Patient Advocacy Collaborations at Different Lifecycle Stages
• Rating Importance of Education/Program Support Types by Key Lifecycle Stages
• Best Approaches to Seed an Early Relationship with Patient Advocacy Groups
• Rating Importance of Platforms for Delivering Education to Patient Advocacy Groups
• Best Approaches to Deploying Advocacy Grants for Early-Stage Support with Groups
• Marketplace Factors to be Considered Regarding Patient Advocacy Issues
• Imporatant Issues Facing Patient Advocacy over Next Three Years
  
  

Mapping The Advocacy Landscape to Know Where to Start:

Assess the landscape of advocacy and community-interest groups to understand the broad spectrum of players, special interests and possible collaborators. Different groups may prove more valuable collaborators at different stages of the product and disease lifecycle. Some groups will be friendly; some groups may prove hostile. Creating an advocacy“topographical”map is useful to strategic advocacy planning.

Build Infrastructures for Fast and Effective Response:

Develop an expertise structure to support rapid response to external special interest groups–both positive and negative–to allow rapid resolution of issues and ongoing intelligence gathering. Create a communications infrastructure for rapid response. Deputize communications leaders for hostile interactions. Centralize information management & response. Stay informed through rapid global updates on hostile group activities. Respond locally to attacks to avoid global issue spread. Never antagonize groups whose interests diverge from yours.