Report Summary: Benchmarking Advisory Board Management At Large Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Organizations

Industries Profiled:
Health Care; Pharmaceutical; Diagnostic; Biopharmaceutical; Medical Device; Academic; Research; Consumer Products; Biotech; Consulting; Education; Science; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
Abbott; Avanir; Abbvie; B.Braun; AstraZeneca; Duke University and Health System; Bayer Healthcare; Haemonetics Corporation; Acorda Therapeutics; Lupin; Biogen Idec; MD Outlook; Boehringer Ingelheim; Medicines Differentiation Analytics; cipla; Medunik Canada; Catalent Pharma Solutions; PharMedium; Covidien; Poxel; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Purdue Pharma; UCB Pharma; Reliance Institute of Life Sciences; Sanofi; Uroplasty; Novo Nordisk; Xenoport

Study Snapshot

This study engaged 35 executives from 29 leading life sciences companies. Segmentation analysis was key to examining trends and effective practices. Thirteen participants at 9 companies make up the Large Company Segment (annual revenues greater than USD 10 Billion). Most responses came from US & Canada(63%) followed by Asia (20%).

Key Findings

· Physician & Clinical Advisory Boards Most Common: Six out of 10 benchmarked companies maintain physician and clinical advisory boards.
Segments: Large Companies utilize all the types of advisory boards studied in this research. Sixty-two percent of large companies have physician advisory boards and 69% have clinical advisory boards. Half of large companies also host marketing advisory boards.


· Large Companies Prefer National Participants for Physician Advisory Boards: Unlike some benchmarked companies, 56% of large companies prefer national participants as a part of their physician advisory boards while 33% like a mix of both national and regional.

• Type of advisory board used by benchmark participants
• Number of board participants
• Factors influencing number of advisory board participants
• Departments responsible for conducting respective advisory board meetings at participating companies
• Length of advisory board contract
• Preferred reach of advisory board members
• Desired qualifications for advisory board members
• Accepted level of education for each of the advisory board members
• Preferred level of education for each of the advisory board members
• Diverse set of preferred occupations for each of the advisory board member
• Preferred level of experience (in years) in respective field for each of the advisory board member
• Top objectives for establishing respective advisory boards (clinical, marketing, payer, physician advisory boards)
• Number of advisory meetings conducted on an annual basis for each type of advisory board
• Preferred duration (in hours) for each advisory board meeting
• Total duration spent on all advisory board meetings in a year
• Percentage for each type of advisory board meeting conducted by the organization
• Average number of hours taken to prepare for each advisory board meeting
• Advisory board outsourcing
• Area of advisory board work outsourced
• Percentage of the total budget spent on outsourcing activities
• Budget allocated for conducting each advisory board meeting
• Percentage spent on various parameters to conduct an advisory board meeting
• Top challenges encountered when planning and conducting advisory boards
• Best practices to sustain interaction and improve outcomes of advisory boards
• Most important keys to reduce cost drivers involved in conducting advisory boards
• Steps taken to ensure compliance with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act with respect to advisory boards