Medical Affairs Launch Excellence: Medical Affairs Role at Launch in Medical Device Companies

Best Practices, LLC undertook benchmarking research to identify the critical success factors for a strong medical affairs launch support, as well as highlight strategies for thought leader targeting and communication. This study will serve as a benchmark for medical device companies in developing successful medical affairs launch strategies.

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 14 Medical Affairs leaders at 13 medical device companies through a benchmarking survey. Additional deep-dive interviews were conducted with 5 selected participants. More than 70% of the participants are at the level of VP /CEO/ Director and around a quarter of participants are managers.

Key Findings

• Medical Affairs’ Role in Launch Activities: Medical Affairs is heavily involved in five launch activities within participating organizations: Scientific Publications, MSL Activities, Advisory Boards, Thought Leader identification and development and Speaker Training. More than 60 percent of medical device companies are involved in these top 5 activities.
• Thought Leader Tiering: More than 75 percent of the benchmark class use five criteria while segmenting their TLs in the pre-launch stage: Regional Diversity, Therapeutic Area, Product Types, TLs’ Experience, & TLs’ Expertise.

• Executive Summary, pgs. 3-9
• Research Overview, pg. 4
• Participating Companies, pg. 5
• Key Recommendations, pg. 6
• Abbreviations, pg. 7
• Key Findings & Insights , pgs. 8-9
• Benchmark Class Profile, pgs. 10-13
• Medical Affair’s Role in Launch Activities, pgs. 14-17
• Thought Leader Tiering , pgs. 18-21
• Thought Leader Targeting and MSL Coverage, pgs. 22-27
• Launch Investment, pgs. 28-31
• Medical Affairs Investment Allocation, pgs. 32-36
• Participant Demographics, pgs. 37-40
• About Best Practices LLC, pgs. 41-42

• Role of Medical Affairs in Different Launch, Pre-launch and Post-launch Phase Activities
• Role of Medical Affairs in Internal Product Launch Communication
• Criteria Used to Segment Thought Leaders Before and Post Launch
• Timing of Strategies Used for Thought-Leader (TL) Tiering
• Case Example: Segmentation of ‘KOLs’ by Level of Influence Before Evaluations
• Total Number of TLs Targeted and MSLs Employed for a Product during Pre-launch and Post-launch Period
• Number of TLs Targeted per MSL Employed
• Core Responsibilities of MSLs
• Total Launch Investment for the Product during Pre-launch and Post-launch Period
• Total Number of FTEs Allocated for the Product during Pre-launch and Post-launch Period
• Critical Role of Payers And Patients
• Total Medical Affairs Launch Investment Per Product Supported During Pre-launch and Post-launch Phase
• Total Number of Launch FTEs Per Product Supported During Pre-launch and Post-launch Phase
• Percentage of Total Medical Affairs Launch Investment Allocated to Listed Medical Affairs Activities During Each Time Period
• Percentage of Total Medical Affairs launch FTEs Allocated to Listed Medical Affairs Activities During Each Time Period
• Launch Success Factors