Interweaving Medical Strategy to Maximize New Treatment Success: Linking Launch Strategies with Medical Operations Excellence and Competitive Resourcing Decisions

Industries Profiled:
Biotech; Pharmaceutical; Biopharmaceutical; Health Care; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
Chimerix; Corcept Therapeutics; Dermavant Sciences; Eisai; EMD Serono; Ferrer; Grifols; GlaxoSmithKline ; Galderma; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; KalVista Pharmaceuticals; Merz Aesthetics; OTSUKA; Sanofi; Santen; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Zambon

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 18 Medical Affairs leaders from leading biopharma organizations in this benchmarking research and conducted in-depth interviews with select benchmark partners to uncover key insights and strategies for developing and executing an effective medical launch strategy.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Top Launch Challenges
• Medical Affairs Launch Resource Levels
• Developing and Operationalizing Effective Medical Strategies for Launch Success
• Leveraging Data, Analytics, and Digital Tools
• Enhancing Launch Support through Field Medical Teams
• Streamlining Strategy with AI and Automation

• Top Launch Challenges: Insufficient resources (86%) are a major challenge in executing medical launch strategies, with many also facing struggles with missed deadlines (71%) and tailoring execution to specific market-entry needs (56%).

• Key Data Sources: Medical strategy is primarily built on three key sources of data and insights: 1) Clinical data, 2) Advisory boards, and 3) KOL feedback. Additionally, medical congresses, RWE, and competitive intelligence are vital sources for strategy development in many Medical Affairs groups.

• Benchmark study partners
• Key study findings
• Medical launch excellence: Framework for operationalizing medical strategy
• Launch improvement opportunities

• Top current launch challenges for Medical Affairs
• Average Medical Affairs launch budget
• Medical Affairs launch budget breakdown for novel therapies and therapies in crowded markets
• Total Medical Affairs staffing levels and revenue supported per FTE – U.S. vs. Global comparison
• Average staffing per Medical Affairs sub-function
• Medical FTEs allocated to each sub-function specifically to support launch
• Medical Affairs PYSF per launch FTE – U.S. vs. Global breakdown
• Average launch staffing levels per Medical Affairs sub-function
• Contribution of each Medical Affairs sub-function to the launch budget

• Involvement level of Medical Affairs sub-functions in shaping and delivering the organization’s medical strategy
• Role of different Medical functions in driving strategy, operations, and engagement for market entry
• Key data sources for shaping medical strategy development
• Timeline for medical strategy development
• Leveraging insights for strategy development
• Leveraging insights to evolve and validate medical strategy
• Case example: Navigating cognitive overload and crafting a market-entry strategy aligned with HCP needs
• Sharing science vs. using science to identify treatment differentiators
• Translating launch objectives into medical strategy actions

• Frequency of interaction with Medical Directors and other strategy leads
• Driving effective medical launch strategy implementation through Medical Operations support
• Integrating analytics into Medical Operations for launch support
• Digital tools for tracking launch goals, KPIs, and insights in Medical Organizations
• Using AI and automation to improve and operationalize medical launch strategy development
• Setting launch-specific goals for MSLs to drive impact beyond general field team targets

• Geographical scope of responsibility for benchmark partners
• Therapeutic areas represented by benchmark partners