Medical-Commercial Collaboration and Growth Areas: Success Stories, Expanding Stakeholder Universe, Field Interactions, and the Future of Collaboration

Industries Profiled:
Biotech; Pharmaceutical; Biopharmaceutical; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Health Care; Chemical; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
Allergan; Asklepion Pharmaceuticals; LLC; AstraZeneca; Axsome Therapeutics; Bayer; bioMerieux; CSL Behring; embecta; Fresenius; Genentech; Gilead Sciences; Grünenthal; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Kyowa Kirin; Merck; Merck KGaA; Merz Pharma; Micromed; Novartis; OM Pharma; Partner Therapeutics (PTx); Pfizer; Pixacore; Radius Health; Inc.; Sandoz; Sanofi; Santen; Servier; Sobi; Supernus; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Teva Pharmaceuticals; Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 40 Medical Affairs leaders who are collaborating with Commercial at 33 global biopharmaceutical companies. Functions represented in this study include: C-suite, Medical Strategy, Medical Operations, Field Medical, Medical Education, Medical Information, and Medical Excellence. Best Practices LLC also conducted deep-dive interviews with Medical Affairs leaders to capture additional insights.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Collaboration Modes and Leadership in Partnerships
• Success Stories in Launch Strategies, Education, Training, Digital Systems, and KOL Engagement
• Uniting Medical and Commercial to Engage Customers
• Analytics Collaboration and Omnichannel Benefits
• Key Commercial and Medical Partners
• Top Collaboration Models
• Field Interaction Policies
• Barriers, Opportunities, and Improvement Areas
• Future Collaboration Trends

• Top Modes of Collaboration: Medical most often engages with Commercial counterparts via synched Medical-Brand strategies (83%), shared engagement plans for large (68%) and individual (30%) customers, cross-functional training (55%), and shared digital systems (43%).

• Analytic Collaboration: Shared analytics have been leveraged to enhance tailored customer engagements. Top uses include identifying knowledge gaps (68%), unmet needs/underserved groups (55%), new training topics (44%), and insights to drive care model change (42%).

• Research methodology and scope
• Benchmark study partners
• Key study findings

• Current level of collaboration between Medical Affairs and Commercial teams
• Top modes of Medical-Commercial collaboration
• Drivers of Medical-Commercial collaboration
• Recent successful programs or pilots resulting from Medical-Commercial collaboration
• Top collaboration success stories

• Three main paradigms of external stakeholder engagement
• Customer groups around whom Medical groups collaborate with Commercial
• External stakeholder map
• Collaborative strategies for engaging KOLs and guideline organizations
• Collaborative strategies for engaging physicians and other HCPs
• Collaborative strategies for engaging advocacy groups and patients
• Collaborative strategies for engaging payers and IDNs
• Collaborative strategies for engaging industry groups
• Digital/omnichannel benefits
• Analytics collaboration

• Most effective collaboration approaches
• Frequency with which Medical Affairs typically collaborates with its primary Commercial partners
• Primary Medical collaborators interacting frequently with Commercial colleagues
• Top-ranked collaboration approaches
• Spectrum of field interaction policies
• Field interaction policies concerning MSL-to-sales rep collaboration
• Field interaction policies concerning MSL-to-sales managers collaboration
• Field interaction policies concerning Medical Directors-to-KAMs collaboration
• Policies on field interaction regarding collaboration between market access and health outcomes liaisons

• Commercial’s perception on the value of Medical Affairs
• Opportunity areas for Medical Affairs to fill Commercial gaps
• Barriers to impactful collaboration between Medical and Commercial
• Areas for improving Medical-Commercial partnerships
• Envisioning the future of collaborative endeavors