HCP Engagement Excellence: Optimizing Contracting Processes, Resources and Internal Interactions for Engaging Physicians and other HCPs

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Biotech; Biopharmaceutical; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Health Care; Communications


Companies Profiled:
AbbVie; Amgen; Apellis Pharmaceuticals; Bayer; Baxter International; Eisai; Eurofarma; Fidia; Heron Therapeutics; Imbrium Therapeutics; Ipsen; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Kyowa Kirin; Medexus Pharmaceuticals; Merck KGaA; NexGen Healthcare Communications; Pfizer; Sandoz; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; UCB Pharma

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 20 leaders from 20 organizations for this study. Deep-dive interviews were also conducted with four leaders to capture their insights about HCP contracting.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• HCP Engagement Contracting Process
• Tactics for Reducing HCP Contracting Complexities
• HCP Contracting Timeline and Effectiveness
• Resourcing for HCP Engagement Contracting
• Internal Stakeholder Approval for HCP Engagement
• Contract Review and Approval

• Global US contracting for EU takes longer than US and Outside-EU/US contracting: On average, it takes about 3 months for global US contracting for EU, whereas it takes 2 months or less for US contracting and global US contracting outside EU/US.

• Contract Review and Approval: For 60% of the benchmark class, local country approves and global US group reviews and approves when contracting HCP outside US. Fifteen percent require only local review and approval, whereas 10% require only global US review and approval.

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	Executive Summary	Pg. 4-10
	Study Overview	Pg. 5
	Universe of Learning	Pg. 6
	Executive Dashboards	Pg. 7-9
II.	HCPs Engagement Programs and Geographic Perspective	Pg. 11-13
III.	HCP Engagement Contracting Process	Pg. 14-34
IV.	Resourcing for HCP Engagement Contracting	Pg. 35-47
V.	HCP Contracting: Voices from the Field	Pg. 48-58
VI.	About Best Practices, LLC	Pg. 59

• Functional orientation of HCP engagement programs and Types of medical and/or commercial programs that external HCPs are utilized for
• Geographic representation of the contracted HCPs

• Effectiveness of benchmark companies’ contracting process for engaging HCPs (advisory boards, consulting, etc.)
• Interview narrative around driving HCP contracting effectiveness in EU
• Average time taken from program approval to program execution for the types of HCP contracting listed
• Interview narrative around lead time required for executing HCP contracts in various countries
• Interview narrative around EU HCP contracting challenges
• Steps used as part of the HCP pre-contracting process for the types of HCP contracting listed
• Steps used as part of the HCP post-contracting process for the types of HCP contracting listed
• Average HCP contracting process timeline for global US contracting for EU and optimal timeline for the same
• Interview narrative around complications surrounding EU contracting
• Average HCP contracting process timeline for global US contracting outside EU/US and optimal timeline for the same
• Benchmark success at reducing complexities that are/were inherent in the HCP engagement contracting process
• Tactics for reducing HCP engagement contracting complexities
• Partner narratives around how they reduced contracting complexities
• Interview narrative around the use of templates for HCP engagements
• Interview narrative around accelerating the HCP contracting process
• Interview narrative around having a flexible HCP contract
• Interview narrative around the use of master service agreements

• Total HCP engagement contracts processed per FTE, on average, in a year for all HCP-related programs (ad boards, consulting, etc.)
• Total number of FTEs (in-house and vendor staff) employed in the group that handles HCP engagement contracting
• Functions involved in managing/processing a HCP engagement contract
• Interview narrative around impediments to the HCP contracting process
• Internal stakeholders that are responsible for approving contracts for HCP engagement (e.g. ad board, consulting engagement, etc.)
• Interview narrative around the key to speeding up HCP contracting
• Contract review and approval requirements when global US is contracting a HCP licensed outside of the US
• Interview narrative around EU cross border agreements
• Types of approvals required/issued by local contracting groups in addition to global US approvals
• Interview narrative around impact of additional contracting approval require on timeline
• Interview narrative around different rules and requirements for HCP contracting in EU
• Interview narrative around restrictions in France

• Interview narrative around contact management systems
• Interview narrative around common systems for HCP contracting
• Interview narrative around another stumbling block for HCP contracting
• Interview narrative around exception process for disputes
• Interview narrative around structural stumbling block for HCP contracting
• Interview narrative with example of an effective contracting process
• Interview narrative around dedicated contracting groups
• Interview narrative around use of centralized groups for HCP contracting for US and Outside-US
• Interview narrative around the contracting process
• Interview narrative around contracting control