Developing Strong Internal Thought Leader Management Capabilities Inside Medical Affairs

Best Practices, LLC undertook this benchmarking study to explore how leading biopharmaceutical companies structure and organize their Medical Affairs function and develop effective relationships with thought leaders. The study also benchmarks the resource levels, internal communication tactics and use of social media for effective thought leader management.
Responses in this study have been presented in regional (US only and global companies) and company size (Large, medium-sized and small companies) segments.

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 31 executives from 27 leading biopharmaceutical companies through a benchmarking survey. 7 research participants represented large biopharmaceutical organizations, while the remaining benchmark class emerged from mid-size and small companies. Also 14 companies form a US-only segment, while 13 companies form a Global segment.

Key Findings

· Budget and Functional Responsibilities Should Align: Ideally, companies should align budget management and functional responsibilities to use resources effectively. While Medical Affairs group leads Thought Leader Management in a majority of the companies, the group has less budget decision power than functional responsibility in this area.

· Thought Leader Management Spend is Allocated to Most Important Activities: The importance level of an activity influences the amount of spend for it. For example: Funding Clinical Research Activities has the highest spend and is rated the most important activity by all segments.