At the same time, increased engagement with stakeholders helps pharma companies focus on outcomes. That approach creates a virtuous circle for pharma companies.Īs medical value teams build long-term relationships with a variety of stakeholders, they benefit from continual market feedback and a better, more nuanced understanding of the market and patient needs. Leading companies have understood that medical value teams can step into the breach and help physicians, payers, providers and key opinion leaders make sense of a deluge of data and identify the best use for new products. Those developments have increased the need for more transparent data on drug performance. At the same time, diagnostic tools are becoming more sophisticated and drugs increasingly complex (see Figure 3). But sorting through the vast increase in evidence has become an overwhelming task-physicians, payers and healthcare providers are struggling with data overload.
Engaging stakeholders and communicating scienceīain research shows that 88% of US physicians and 83% of EU physicians consider real-world evidence a top criterion in prescribing drugs (see Figure 2). The winners in an era of Big Data will transform medical affairs teams into medical value teams with three strategic roles: communicating scientific evidence, providing market-based strategic input to drug development and portfolio management, and overseeing the effort to produce Big Data and real-world evidence. That traditional approach could become a handicap as rivals retrain medical affairs teams to develop scientific evidence and demonstrate to physicians, payers, patient groups and key opinion leaders how new products improve patient outcomes.
Why have so few pharma companies started down this path? Most remain focused on products instead of outcomes, and they regard medical affairs staff as technical product advisers. Transforming medical affairs to medical value The insights they glean over time can improve return on investment and create a strong competitive advantage by helping companies design more effective clinical programs and launches. When discussing a potential new compound with physicians, payers and opinion leaders, for example, medical affairs teams gather vital feedback on its market potential and patient needs at the earliest stages of the drug development process. In Europe, they have fallen by 10% between 20.Īn experienced medical affairs team can link scientific and clinical results to patient outcomes, adding value at every stage of a drug’s development. In North America, pharma salesforce levels have dropped by about 7% between 20 and have leveled off since then. In parallel, the total number of sales representatives has fallen. That shift is even more pronounced among younger physicians. Physicians already are reducing their reliance on sales representatives and turning to more scientific sources of information, Bain research shows (see Figure 1). Loïc Plantevin, a partner with Bain's Healthcare practice, describes how medical affairs can become a strategic ace by presenting high-quality data to the people who influence purchasing decisions.Īs the demand for real-world evidence grows, those two roles will become increasingly critical to pharma companies’ performance. They are well positioned to generate and present high-quality scientific knowledge to the market and educate stakeholders about next-generation products. Equipped with deep product knowledge and disease understanding, medical affairs teams can become a strategic ace in an era of Big Data. Leading companies are upgrading medical affairs to overcome that deficit.