medical affairs resources, structures, and trends report summary
DESCRIPTION
Report summary for our most popular Medical Affairs report. Contact me for access options to the full report.TRANSCRIPT
Copyright © Best Practices®, LLC BEST PRACTICES,®
LLC
Best Practices, LLC Strategic Benchmarking Research
Medical Affairs Resources, Structures & Trends
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC2
Key Topic Areas
Research Objective
Study Objective
Objective: This survey was developed
to identify benchmarks for resources,
structures and activities of Medical
Affairs organizations within leading
pharmaceutical, medical device and
biotech companies.
Metrics and insights developed from
survey data may be used to evaluate and
improve Medical Affairs organizations
throughout the industry.
Organizational Structure
Reporting Relationship
Job Level of Group Leader
Geographic Span
Budget and Staff Resource Levels
Budget Allocation by Medical Affairs Function
Percent of Budget Allocated for Outsourcing
Recent and Anticipated Changes in Resource Levels
Impact of Medical Affairs Functions on Company Success
Key Success Factors for Medical Affairs
Key Challenges for Medical Affairs
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC3
Definitions Used in This Report
The following definitions are used in this study.
Medical Affairs: Functions dedicated to building and maintaining relationships with physicians and the medical community, including, but not limited to, the following:
Medical Education: Responsible for CME & educational grants
Medical Communications & Publications: Develops or reviews scientific/medical content--including medical journal articles--for communications to health care professionals, patients, consumers and payers. Develops/ manages publication plan. Includes Medical Info Call Center.
Medical/Clinical Research Operations: Creates and guides strategy for clinical development programs. Develops and executes investigator and company-initiated clinical studies, including cost-marketing/ Phase IV studies. Includes Medical Directors.
Medical/Scientific Liaisons (MSLs): Non-sales field force responsible for medical relations & training.
Outcomes Research: Collection and analysis of Health Outcomes/ Economics data.
Phamacovigilance/Safety: The collection and analysis of information on adverse drug reactions.
Thought Leader Management: The identification, recruitment and development of physicians who can influence the medical perspective and practice of their peers.
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC4
Selected Key Findings
The following key findings and insights are among those that emerged from the field surveys and executive interviews.
Structure:
The Medical Affairs organization is most often a centralized, dedicated group with a global geographic span that includes the U.S.
Typically, Medical Affairs organizations report to the Executive Team (42 percent) rather than to Marketing or R&D.
The head of Medical Affairs holds the job level of vice president or above at a majority of companies (54 percent.)
Spending:
On average, 37 percent of Medical Affairs spending is allocated for medical/clinical research operations, with the top quartile spending more than 60% for the clinical function.
Medical Educations takes up about 18% of Medical Affairs allocations.
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC5
Research Participants
Participants in Survey
Twenty-six Medical Affairs leaders at 25 pharmaceutical companies participated in this benchmarking study.
Participating Companies: Amgen, ApoPharma, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Auxilium, Bayer Healthcare, Bayer Schering Pharma, Becton Dickinson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cubist, Esteve, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Myriad, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, OctoPlus, Pfizer, ProCaps, Savient, Schering-Plough, SK&F, Solvay, Vertex, Werrick Pharmaceuticals.
WerrickPharmaceuticals
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC6
Medical Affairs Departments Have High-Level Leadership
Executives at the vice president level or above lead Medical Affairs departments at 54% of the participating companies.
Q. What is the job level of the person who currently heads Medical Affairs?
n=26
* Other= Head of Medical Affairs; Manager of Medical Affairs
Chief Medical Officer
Senior/Executive VP
Vice PresidentSenior/Executive Director, 19%
Director, 19%
* Other, 8%
23%
4%
27%
Job Level of Medical Affairs Head
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC7
Half the Medical Affairs Organizations Have Global Span
Survey respondents most often represented groups with span covering the globe, including responsibility for the United States.
50%
19%
31%
Global(including
U.S.)
U.S. Only Other
Q. What is the geographic span of responsibility of Medical Affairs at your company?
n=26
* Other=Global (excluding US), North America, Hybrid, No reporting line between Global Medical Affairs & Regional/local Medical Affairs; Country Only (4 responses)*
Geographic Span of Medical Affairs Head
% R
espo
nses
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC8
Fewer than 20% of companies experienced or projected any decreases in Medical Affairs Staff or budget resources. Key reasons given were the state of the economy, loss of patents, acquisitions, shift of clinical operations, and corporate cost-saving initiatives.
Q. Please describe the key reasons for an decreases in spending or headcount that you indicated occurred in the past year or that you anticipate next year.
18% of companies either expect or have experienced decreases in budget resources for Medical Affairs.
About 20% have seen or expect staff reductions.
“The company has initiatives to do more with less.”
“Laboratory operations functions are being moved out of Medical Affairs next year.”
“Products are going off patent.”
“Economy.”
“Acquisition of another company.”
Representative Quotes:
Few Companies Decreasing Medical Affairs Resources Cite Varied Reasons
$Medical Affairs
Medical Affairs
$
BEST PRACTICES,®
LLCCopyright © Best Practices®, LLC9
Best Practices, LLC is a research and consulting firm that conducts work based on the simple yet profound principle that organizations can chart a course to
superior economic performance by studying the best business practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of world-class companies.
Best Practices, LLC6350 Quadrangle Drive, Suite 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27517
About Best Practices, LLC