Medical Affairs Excellence: Overview of Structure, Alignment and Funding

In today’s challenging healthcare environment, medical affairs’ role has become even more crucial to pharmaceutical companies’ success. To fulfill growing strategic roles, the medical affairs function needs to continuously re-invent itself by optimizing its overall capabilities. This six-page document provides an overview of the key strategies that top pharmaceutical companies use to align medical affairs capabilities into efficient, effective medical affairs functions.

Sample Best Practices
1. Align organizational structures with business objectives, strategies and change.
- Some companies are responding to new OIG guidelines by moving medical education, communications and scientific liaisons from the marketing organization to the medical affairs function to ensure consistent policies, standards and compliance.
2. Improve processes to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness.
- Two benchmarked companies have instituted a medical affairs strategy and operations planning process to formalize the development of medical marketing strategy, tactical plan and budget between the medical team and brand team.
3. Improve hiring, training and development to ensure that the right people are doing the right jobs.
- In addition to more selective hiring, companies are investing in training and development to help medical affairs managers and staff to acquire or sharpen critical job skills.

Methodology
This document is a result of research and consulting work conducted on behalf of a client by Best Practices, LLC.

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