Benchmarking Advisory Board Management At Small Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Organizations

Best Practices, LLC recently undertook a study to establish benchmarks on effective advisory board management at small pharmaceutical and medical device organizations. The study provides leading insights and metrics on the appropriate structure for various types of advisory boards, selection of advisory board members, advisory board operational and resource benchmarks. It also highlights the top challenges, winning strategies and best practices in conducting effective advisory boards at small biopharmaceutical companies.

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

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 35 executives from 29 leading life sciences companies through a benchmarking survey. Segmentation analysis was key to examining trends and effective practices. Twelve participants from 12 companies with annual revenues less than $1 Billion USD comprise the Small Companies Segment (SC). Most responses came from the United States and Canada (63%), followed by Asia (20%).

Key Findings

· Physician and Clinical Advisory Boards Most Common: Six out of 10 total benchmark maintain physician and clinical advisory boards.

Segments: Two-thirds of the small companies have physician advisory boards currently present while half of them have clinical advisory boards. A little less than 50% of small companies are hosting marketing advisory boards.

Segments: Only 17% of small companies have payer advisory boards, indicating that they are still in nascent stages in this segment.

• 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