Medical Affairs Resources, Structures & Trends

Study Overview

Charged with building and maintaining physician relationships, pharmaceutical Medical Affairs organizations typically oversee several important functions -- including publications, KOL programs, grants and medical education (CME) -- that have been impacted in recent years by a call for increased transparency. As such, forward-looking biopharmaceutical executives are evaluating Medical Affairs operations to ensure it is appropriately structured and resourced to operate effectively in the current environment.

This Best Practices, LLC study explores how U.S. and global biopharmaceutical companies are structuring and managing their Medical Affairs organizations. The study also examines recent trends in budget and staffing resources, key challenges and top success factors for the function. Pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device managers and executives will be able to use this research to determine how their Medical Affairs organizations compare with industry benchmarks.

Key Topics

• Organizational Structure
• Reporting Relationship
• Job Level of Group Leader
• Geographic Span
• 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
• Appendix

• Type of structure (centralization)
• Medical Affairs group dedication
• Departmental reporting relationships
• Job level or Medical Affairs head
• Geographic span of organization
• Percentage of spending per Medical Affairs function
• Directional trends in Medical Affairs funding levels
• Directional trends in staffing levels
• Reasons cited for budget/staff increases
• Reasons cited for budget/staff decreases
• Relative importance of seven different Medical Affairs functions
• Reasons cited for increased importance
• Reasons cited for decreased importance
• Percentage of budget allocated for outsourcing
• Percent of companies impacted by FDA Revitalization Act
• Top three success factors for developing and maintaining effective Medical Afffairs group
• Top three challenges for developing and maintaining effective Medical Afffairs group