APAC MSL excellence: Optimizing resources, alignment and organizational support for field medical operations in Asia-Pacific

Industries Profiled:
Health Care; Pharmaceutical; Diagnostic; Biotech; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Medical Device; Chemical; Biopharmaceutical; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
Abbott; Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Allergopharma; Amgen; AstraZeneca; Bayer; Biogen; Bioventus; Boehringer Ingelheim; Celgene; Chiesi; Clovis Oncology; Dr Reddy's Laboratories; Eisai; Galderma; GE Healthcare; Gedeon Richter ; Gilead Sciences; Grifols; Ipsen; Janssen; Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals; Kyowa Kirin; Lupin; Merck; MSD; Novartis; Novelion Therapeutics; Pfizer; Rakuten Medical; Roche; Sandoz; Sanofi; Shire; Sunovion; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; UCB Pharma; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Vifor Pharma; ViiV Healthcare

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 125 Global Medical Affairs and Field Medical Excellence leaders from more than 40 leading pharma and biotech companies in this research through a benchmarking survey. In-depth interviews were conducted with 8 benchmark partners to gain further insights.

The vast majority of study participants serve at the executive or director level. Together they provide a comprehensive view of field medical operations around the world, from a global, regional and local perspective.

Insights in this research are presented into following segments to illuminate field medical trends at region and country level: Europe Segment (N=58), APAC Segment (N=30), Americas Segment (N=27), MENA Segment (N=9).

Key topics covered in this report include:

• MSL staffing and resource levels in core global markets in APAC region
• Structure and alignment of MSL teams
• MSL new product launches support within APAC countries
• MSL productivity and efficiency
• KOL and key account targeting and engagement
• MSL skills and background across markets in APAC region

• Structure & alignment: Though most MSLs in Asia-Pacific (70%) are aligned under the umbrella of Medical, few use direct reporting to Global Medical Affairs. Instead, the vast majority report into the country affiliate. Regional reporting among MSLs in the larger markets (Japan, China, India and Australia) is rare. Just 8% report directly into a regional office.

• Effectiveness: F2F is widely used (72% of engagement) in a region where that manner of in-person interaction is often critical to building genuine relationships. APAC MSLs collectively have the least experience in the role of any global region, with nearly half of current APAC MSLs having previously worked as sales reps. APAC leaders cite both sales reps and physicians as being the most promising professional backgrounds for successful future MSLs.

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
	Research Overview	p. 3
	Key Findings	p. 5
II.	FULL BENCHMARK DATA
	Resourcing MSLs: Staffing, travel & entertainment budgets and launch support	p. 14
	Aligning MSLs: Structure, reporting and organizational support	p. 34
	Assessing MSLs: Capacity, KOL targeting and engagement	p. 47
III.	APPENDIX	p. 71
IV.	About Best Practices, LLC	p. 75

• Business issue and research methodology
• Data segments analyzed in this study
• One page summary of benchmark findings
• Top takeaways for Medical Affairs and Field Excellence leaders
• Global snapshot: MSL resourcing and engagement in major APAC markets
• Analyzing investment across the global MSL resource matrix
• MSL staffing levels by product lifecycle stage
• Pros and cons of country-aligned (local) reporting vs. functionally-aligned (global) reporting

• APAC countries represented in the benchmark data

• Average number of brands (including both in-line and pre-launch products) supported by each MSL in each of the listed countries – All regions
• Average number of brands (including both in-line and pre-launch products) supported by each MSL in each of the listed countries – APAC countries
• Total number of MSLs staffed in each country; total number of MSLs supporting each therapeutic area – All regions
• MSL staffing footprint in each of the listed APAC countries
• Total number of MSLs staffed in each country per therapeutic area supported
• Interview narrative around establishing field medical presence across Asia
• Approximate annual total travel and entertainment (T&E) budget allocated to MSLs – All regions
• Approximate annual total travel and entertainment (T&E) budget allocated to MSLs in each of the listed countries – APAC countries
• Additional MSL staffing and T&E budget data from non-target APAC countries
• Interview narrative around weighting of affiliate spend
• Total number of staff allocated to each of the listed MSL management and support roles; APAC span of field control
• Average percentage of “peak MSL team size” assigned to support a product at each phase of the typical product lifecycle – All regions
• Interview narrative around having knowledgeable MSLs onboard
• Average percentage of “peak MSL team size” assigned to support a product at each phase of the typical product lifecycle – Country-wise
• Interview narrative around key launch staffing milestones
• Effective timing in APAC to bring an MSL on board to support a product in each phase of the product lifecycle
• Effective timing to bring an MSL on board to support a product in each phase of the product lifecycle in each of the targeted APAC countries
• Top lessons learned for ensuring MSLs provide effective support for new launches in APAC
• Innovative tactics piloted by MSLs on recent product launches - or planning to use on upcoming launches - in APAC

• MSL structure – All regions
• MSL structure – APAC countries
• Reporting relationship between the MSLs in each country and global Medical Affairs organization – All regions
• Interview narrative around country-aligned (local) MSL reporting structure
• Interview narrative around function-aligned (global) MSL reporting structure
• Interview narrative around defining the MSL reporting structure for field medical organizations with low global footprint and evolving operations
• Reporting relationship between the MSLs in each country and global Medical Affairs organization – APAC countries
• Interview narrative around MSL execution
• MSL direct reporting outside of global Medical Affairs – All regions
• Interview narrative around launch success for field medical
• MSL direct reporting outside of global Medical Affairs – APAC countries
• Interview narrative around the skillsets needed to succeed in remote markets for field medical staff

• Average MSL time spent per week on each of the listed activity areas
• Number of thought leaders supported per MSL in each region – All regions
• Number of thought leaders supported per MSL in each of the targeted APAC countries
• Interview narrative around MSL value
• Thought leader tier breakdown for a typical MSL in APAC region
• Approximate number of HCPs (i.e., not on thought leader target list) engaged by each MSL in the past 12 months
• Total large key accounts (hospitals, care networks or academic institutions) served by each MSL in APAC
• Total large key accounts (hospitals, care networks or academic institutions) served by each MSL in each of the listed APAC countries
• Average time spent by MSLs in each face-to-face thought leader interactions (in minutes) – All regions
• Average frequency of MSL interactions with each kind of thought leader in APAC
• Percentage of proactive vs. reactive MSL interactions – All regions
• Percentage of proactive vs. reactive MSL interactions – APAC countries
• Frequency of proactive MSL interaction types – All regions
• Effectiveness of communication channels in APAC for MSL interactions with thought leaders
• MSL professional backgrounds and experience in APAC region
• Actual work experience vs. effective work experience of MSLs for engaging thought leaders in high quality scientific discussions and building long-term relationships
• Interview narrative around ensuring MSLs can fulfill product plan in each of the targeted countries
• Average years of MSL experience in each region