Best Practices for Developing Medical Affairs Professionals: Knowledge Development, Onboarding, Timing, Staffing and Funding

STUDY OVERVIEW

As the importance of the Medical Affairs function continues to grow, top biopharma companies have developed high-impact training and development programs to help Medical Affairs professionals succeed in their critical, multifaceted roles.

Best Practices, LLC undertook this benchmarking research to examine best-in-class practices that leading biopharma organizations have implemented to improve their knowledge development, onboarding, timing of training, staffing and funding.

This study will help companies maximize the benefits of their training and development programs, producing Medical Affairs staff capable of strong strategic thinking, critical communication with internal and external stakeholders, effective thought leader management, and high-impact field interactions.

Training and development leaders in medical affairs can use this study to compare their programs with those at best-in-class companies.

This study includes three data segments: Total Benchmark Class, 57; More Mature Segment, 29; and Less Mature Segment, 28

KEY TOPICS

• Study Overview
• Key Findings
• Knowledge Development
• Onboarding Programs
• Timing and Performance
• Staffing and Funding
• MSL Certification

1. Knowledge Development

• Effective training and development formats for developing Medical Affairs professionals – Total benchmark class
• Effective training and development formats for developing Medical Affairs professionals – More mature segment and less mature segment
• Effective approaches in developing individual capability and enabling career path growth
• Formal rotation of Medical Affairs personnel across different medical teams or other medical functions
• Critical business streams for role rotation
• Exposure of medical staff to each of the listed business streams, projects and activities to maximize development and forge future leaders when creating a rotation plan
• Identifying high-potential Medical Affairs professionals
• Effective approaches for grooming and retaining high-potential Medical Affairs talent for leadership roles – Development practices – Total benchmark class
• Effective approaches for grooming and retaining high-potential Medical Affairs talent for leadership roles – Development practices – More mature segment and less mature segment
• Effective approaches for grooming and retaining high-potential Medical Affairs talent for leadership roles – Incentives / retention
• Backgrounds from which Medical Affairs experts are drawn on to help mentor or advise Medical Affairs staff – Total benchmark class
• Backgrounds from which Medical Affairs experts are drawn on to help mentor or advise Medical Affairs staff – More mature segment and less mature segment
• Effective approaches to monitor progress and ensure the continued professional development of Medical Affairs staff

• Characteristics of onboarding programs
• Types of Medical Affairs employees included in onboarding activities
• Topics covered in onboarding training for Medical Affairs employees
• Career path delineation for new Medical Affairs staff

• Time spent in training each year – Total benchmark class
• Time spent in training each year – More mature segment vs. less mature segment
• Medical Affairs training groups’ performance effectiveness – Total benchmark class
• Medical Affairs training groups’ performance effectiveness – More mature segment and less mature segment

• Onboarding program at more mature companies
• Number of full-time and part-time FTEs supporting benchmark organizations’ Medical Affairs training group
• Percentage of total Medical Affairs training and development programs sourced internally within the organization versus externally
• Groups providing funding for Medical Affairs training and development programs
• Approach for developing policies for Medical Affairs training

• Frequency of MSL re-certification
• Testing format, topics included in the testing, and evaluators during the MSL re-certification process

• On average Medical Affairs training group has 4 FTEs of which 70% are full-time: FTEs at benchmarked companies range from 0.3 to 22. Companies employ 5 full-time FTEs and 2 part-time FTEs.
  • More mature companies have a 6 FTEs, slightly higher than benchmark class, while less mature companies have 3 FTE.
  • Similarly, more mature groups have 6 full-time and 1 part-time FTEs while less mature groups have 3 full-time and 2 part-time FTEs.

Best Practices, LLC  engaged 57 Medical Affairs and training leaders at 42 companies. These leaders are involved with Medical Affairs training at their organizations. In-depth interviews were conducted with 5 participants to highlight often-used training practices.

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Biotech; Laboratories; Biopharmaceutical; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Health Care; Chemical; Consulting; Communications; Clinical Research; Education


Companies Profiled:
Adamas Pharmaceuticals; Alcon Laboratories; Alkem; Arena Pharmaceuticals; Astellas; AstraZeneca; AveXis; Bayer; Biogen; Dendreon Pharmaceuticals LLC; Eisai; EMD Serono; Endo Pharmaceuticals; Ferring Pharmaceuticals; Fidia; Gedeon Richter ; Genentech; Heron Therapeutics; Indegene; Ipsen; IQVIA; Karyopharm Therapeutics; Mallinckrodt; MEDiSTRAVA; Merck; NexGen Healthcare Communications; Novartis; Novo Nordisk; Pfizer; PTC Therapeutics; Inc.; Sanofi; Retrophin; Rhythm Pharmaceuticals; Sanofi Genzyme; Sunovion; Terumo Corporation; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; TG Therapeutics; UCB Pharma; United Therapeutics; Versant

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