Risposta Consulting
New Perspective, New Reality
Medical Affairs
RISPOSTA MEDICAL AFFAIRS provides medical affairs leadership, strategy & operations consultancy to business leaders in the life science industry.
Medical Affairs
Where are you headed?
The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and medical affairs is poised to play a pivotal role in ensuring the successful adoption of new technologies and therapies.
The priorities for medical affairs leaders will not only need to impact patient outcomes but also redefine the role of medical affairs within pharmaceutical companies.
To achieve this aspiration, it is essential to invest in capabilities, align resources, and cultivate a culture of innovation and data-driven decision-making!
By taking bold steps forward, medical affairs can maximize its impact on patient outcomes in this dynamic context and further build on its already strong foundations.
What's your plan?
You may recall the McKinsey white paper: "A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025" published five years ago. It provided a glimpse into a future characterized by the rapid evolution of digital technology and innovation in biological sciences. In this vision, medical affairs teams would assume a more prominent role within pharmaceutical companies, standing alongside research and development (R&D) and commercial teams.
Today, the significance of medical affairs has become even more pronounced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the swift development of mRNA vaccines, and the transformation of the pharmaceutical industry's engagement model with healthcare professionals.
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McKinsey recently provided the updated version, MA Vision 2030 *) - proposing a number of key priorities to Medical Affairs as we consider our vision, strategies and tactics for the coming planning cycles.
The pharmaceutical landscape continues to evolve and substantial investments in biotechnology have resulted in a diverse pipeline of therapies. Real-world evidence (RWE) capabilities have expanded, introducing new forms of data to support existing treatments. Healthcare practitioners and patients now have access to a broader array of therapeutic options, which has made it increasingly challenging for physicians to stay abreast of the latest scientific literature and guidelines.
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Significant shifts are also underway in the healthcare sector. Healthcare providers are increasingly welcoming innovative approaches to engagement, and are increasingly embracing technology for communication, learning, and patient care. Across all three pillars of pharmaceutical companies - R&D, commercial, and medical affairs - substantial investments have been made in data science and technology. Natural language processing models and generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) are revolutionizing traditional practices within the industry.
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To realize the vision for medical affairs by 2030, McKinsey outlines four core deliverables from Medical Affairs:
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1) Innovate Evidence Generation: Medical affairs must take the lead in integrated evidence generation across health economics, real-world evidence, and Phase IIIb/IV studies to address evidence needs and reduce unmet patient needs.
2) Accelerate Access: Generate high-quality evidence and content to facilitate access and drive changes in healthcare delivery for the benefit of all patients.
3) Transform Medical Engagement: Leverage data-backed and AI-driven tailored medical affairs engagement across all channels to enhance medical decision-making among physicians and patients.
4) Step Up Medical Leadership: Medical affairs should transition to become the "third pillar" of the organization by investing in new capabilities and upgrading performance to maximize patient-level impact.
What needs to be done to make it happen ?
Boost Medical Affairs Leadership: Leaders should adopt an enterprise mindset and leadership approach, enhance the impact focus of medical activities, and champion innovation within their teams.
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Integrate End-to-End Data and Analytics: The proliferation of healthcare data presents an opportunity for improved decision-making. Leaders should establish robust medical data and analytics capabilities, incorporate digital and analytics into daily decision-making, and automate routine non-core activities.
Differentiate Medical Strategies: Medical affairs plays a pivotal role in shaping successful strategies for assets, franchises, and launches. Leaders should foster cross-functional collaboration, continuously evolve plans to achieve more ambitious objectives, and reallocate resources in alignment with medical priorities.
Align Evidence Generation with Stakeholder Needs: Advanced AI and RWE analytics are expected to see exponential growth. Medical affairs should lead in developing integrated evidence generation plans, enable stakeholders to interact with evidence in personalized ways, and facilitate stakeholders' access to tailored evidence.
Orchestrate Medical Engagement: By 2030, medical affairs should expand its engagement beyond key opinion leaders and concentrate on digital engagement as a scalable solution to reduce suboptimal care delivery. This entails building a data-driven foundation for engagement, widening and coordinating channels, and transitioning to novel content formats.
* https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/a-vision-for-medical-affairs-2030-five-priorities-for-patient-impact#/
How can I help?
Risposta Medical Affairs will help you as a Medical Leader through the medical affairs strategic planning process, keeping you curious, visionary, strategic and innovative throughout. Risposta helps you ensure a healthy balance of outside-in and inside-out perspectives to your medical strategies and tactics, providing an actionable and engaging plan.
Risposta Medical Affairs can help you localize your regional & global medical affairs plans to a plan that stands out as ambitious, innovative, yet realistic - and where an engaged medical team executes with enthusiasm, at pace !
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If you are new to Medical Affairs in Pharma, Risposta can help you understand all the ins-and-outs of Medical Affairs organizations, their role as cross-functional partner to R&D and Commercial functions, and their stakeholder engagement role.
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