Benchmarking Advisory Board Management At Large Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Organizations

To get maximum return on investment, it is important for pharmaceutical organizations to structure their advisory boards appropriately and invest resources optimally. Best Practices, LLC recently undertook a study to assist pharmaceutical and medical device executives in identifying ways to best utilize the knowledge of advisory boards.

The study delivers leading insights and metrics on the best structure for various types of advisory boards, selection of advisory board participants, advisory board operational benchmarks and cost benchmarks for running advisory boards. It also highlights the top challenges, winning strategies and best practices for conducting advisory boards.

NOTE: Segmentation analysis was key to examining trends and effective practices. This study captures insights from the Large Companies Segment.

Study Snapshot

This study engaged 35 executives from 29 leading life sciences companies. Segmentation analysis was key to examining trends and effective practices. Thirteen participants at 8 companies make up the Large Company Segment (annual revenues greater than USD 10 Billion). Most responses came from US & Canada(63%) followed by Asia (20%).

Key Findings

· Physician & Clinical Advisory Boards Most Common: Six out of 10 benchmarked companies maintain physician and clinical advisory boards.
Segments: Large Companies utilize all the types of advisory boards studied in this research. Sixty-two percent of large companies have physician advisory boards and 69% have clinical advisory boards. Half of large companies also host marketing advisory boards.


· Large Companies Prefer National Participants for Physician Advisory Boards: Unlike some benchmarked companies, 56% of large companies prefer national participants as a part of their physician advisory boards while 33% like a mix of both national and regional.

• Type of advisory board used by benchmark participants
• Number of board participants
• Factors influencing number of advisory board participants
• Departments responsible for conducting respective advisory board meetings at participating companies
• Length of advisory board contract
• Preferred reach of advisory board members
• Desired qualifications for advisory board members
• Accepted level of education for each of the advisory board members
• Preferred level of education for each of the advisory board members
• Diverse set of preferred occupations for each of the advisory board member
• Preferred level of experience (in years) in respective field for each of the advisory board member
• Top objectives for establishing respective advisory boards (clinical, marketing, payer, physician advisory boards)
• Number of advisory meetings conducted on an annual basis for each type of advisory board
• Preferred duration (in hours) for each advisory board meeting
• Total duration spent on all advisory board meetings in a year
• Percentage for each type of advisory board meeting conducted by the organization
• Average number of hours taken to prepare for each advisory board meeting
• Advisory board outsourcing
• Area of advisory board work outsourced
• Percentage of the total budget spent on outsourcing activities
• Budget allocated for conducting each advisory board meeting
• Percentage spent on various parameters to conduct an advisory board meeting
• Top challenges encountered when planning and conducting advisory boards
• Best practices to sustain interaction and improve outcomes of advisory boards
• Most important keys to reduce cost drivers involved in conducting advisory boards
• Steps taken to ensure compliance with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act with respect to advisory boards