medical affairs resources, structures, & trends report summary

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Best Practices, LLC Strategic Benchmarking Research

Medical Affairs Resources, Structures & Trends

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

esp

on

ses

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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

$

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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.

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