Professional & Trade Relations Excellence: Optimizing Group Structure & Resources

STUDY OVERVIEW

Evolving industry and regulatory guidelines are redrawing the roles and activities of Professional and Trade Relations groups in biopharma and medical device organizations. Facing rapid changes in how their Professional and Trade Relations (PTR) groups interact with external organizations, biopharmaceutical organizations are under pressure to maintain their effectiveness while operating within current guidelines.

To help navigate this new external and internal environment, Best Practices, LLC conducted this study on Professional and Trade Relations management. The study explores PTR structure and resource issues such as preferred approaches to organizational structure, budget and staffing allocations for the PTR function, funding approaches for PTR groups, and funding trends.

Pharmaceutical executives also can use this research document to anticipate pitfalls and compare their existing structure and resourcing approaches with those at best-in-class companies.

KEY TOPICS

• Executive summary
• Organizational Structure
• Financial & Human Resources
• Pitfalls, Lessons Learned & Success Factors

• Top structural approach to supporting Professional & Trade Relations
• Top approaches to fund PTR group
• Top approaches for PTR groups to manage/allocate resources for activities
• Estimated PTR budget for past 12 months to support PTR activities
• Number of PTR staff
• Number of brands/products supported by PTR groups
• Trend in professional relations funding
• Top staffing trends to support professional relations activities
• Top barriers that can hurt PTR group activities

• Respondents Indicated a Preference For Centralization Of The Function: Nearly 40% of respondents have centralized structures for PTR, and another 35% have hybrid structures that are often partially centralized. Among those with variations of decentralized structures (regional, therapeutic, etc.), only 8% are decentralized by brand.
• PTR Group Funding Flows from Multiple Sources: The majority of companies receive their PTR funding from brand and corporate sources. This multi-source funding approach is one reason that many organizations embrace collaborative approaches and cross-functional priority setting. Only 12% receive all funding from the brands.

The research employed a data gathering approach that reaps quantitative data from 26 professional and trade relation executives from 25 leading biopharma and medical device companies. In addition, six companies participated in in-depth interviews.

If you purchase Best Practice Database document(s), you will have 30 days from the date of purchase to apply some or all of the cost of the document(s) toward the cost of a Full Access Individual, Pharma, Group or University Membership. Write us at DatabaseTeam@bestpracticesllc.com or call David Guinn at 919-767-9179 if you have any questions.