Showing posts with label Medico- Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medico- Marketing. Show all posts

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Medical Affairs Role in Pharmaceutical Companies



The Medical affairs groups are a growing vital sector in today's bio pharmaceutical industry in providing hospital consultants, key opinion leaders (KOL's), regulatory agencies and healthcare professionals with scientific and medical information relating to the value and correct usage of the products. 

Medical affairs personnel strive for the highest scientific integrity so as to produce successful clinical trials and supply the greatest support for the market. Medical affairs groups perform many activities often overlapping with sales, Medical marketing, clinical growth, and customer service. 

Sales groups may be ill-positioned to accurately present the new product to physicians and quite often need help in making more expert presentations. Medical affairs groups might help in developing appropriate positioning for new releases and help to leveraging the newer indications to come.
Pharmaceutical companies spend tremendous resources for development of new drug treatments. A great deal of time is spent in doing research on potential health-related products and medicines.
While considering the distinctions between post marketing scientific tests and clinical registration demos, medical affairs can fill the requirement for the studies done post approval.

Medical Affairs Role in Functional Areas:
Medical Affairs acts as the central focal point for different therapeutic areas of sales, marketing and research. Medical Affairs work closely with various functional departments such as:

Medical Writing

Scientific Development and Reviewing connected with Product profiles, monographs, package deal insert/ patient information booklet, pharmacology and toxicology parts of registration dossiers with constant updates.


Preparation of Professional medical Development Plan
Providing therapeutic and scientific content for development of study standard protocol
Designing and implementation connected with pharmacoeconomic studies

Reviewing along with approval of regulatory submission, manuscripts, abstracts, posters as well as other scientific documents.

Medical Monitoring:
Medical affairs are the Primary medical contact towards the sponsor, investigative website, and project group.
Medical Affairs supports the look, conduct and evaluation of clinical research and involves continuous data maintenance as well as management.
Involves in talk on study feasibility together with Key Opinion Leaders as well as other potential investigators with regards to possible logistical requirements of the study protocol as well as responds to subject eligibility and disengagement questions.
A Medical affairs team is usually responsible for Medical Monitoring:
Medical affairs are the Primary medical contact towards the sponsor, investigative website, and project group.
Medical Affairs supports the look, conduct and evaluation of clinical research and involves continuous data maintenance as well as management.
Involves in talk on study feasibility together with Key Opinion Leaders as well as other potential investigators with regards to possible logistical requirements of the study protocol as well as responds to subject eligibility and disengagement questions.
A Medical affairs team is usually responsible for clinical trials Protocol and study linked training for researchers and site personnel.


During Pre launch cycle of drug the actual Medical Affairs team will establish a KOL strategy for this product based upon prescriber's interest in research and education for your given indication. Then MA departments will target prospective KOLs and connect to them regarding the actual science behind the revolutionary product, ongoing trials like the balanced information regarding both positive along with negative results. Also discuss the important thing data from healthcare meetings and summaries of changes to apply the guidelines. In addition it will conduct additional education activities of Sales/Marketing individuals to raise awareness of the disease state, current therapeutics, and current gaps in sufferer care. Further, the interests of the KOLs will be assessed during discussions to find out the appropriate scientific exchange and any prospective opportunities for potential investigator-initiated trials (IITs).
At the time of product launch MA was responsible in ensuring clear understanding on utilization of the product by the prescribers. They exchange technological information regarding compound-specific characteristics and physician perceptions of the drug profile. In those times MA will perform an evaluation of IIT proposals that might generate a Step IV strategy which will further differentiate the merchandise post-marketing.

During the Post-launch period of a drug, MA seeks suggestions from KOLs and along with this, it resolves the queries regarding the product ensuring that they know exactly how you can use the product or service. MA maintains the collection of information regarding the acceptance of the product among prescribers along with issues being confronted by the drug. These valuable data will update marketing work as deemed necessary. Further discussions upon clinical practice roles and potential extra indications with KOL's facilitate the commencement regarding IITs and Step IV studies.

Conclusion:

Medical Affairs is the majority of credible link with external stakeholders and also play a progressively more important role in communicating the product or service value message to physicians in an objective and ethical manner. They provide assistance in dissemination of technological information regarding current products to regulating agencies and healthcare professionals. Thus Medical Affairs play an important role in establishing appropriate positioning for new items and help to  help leverage the newer indications in the future.

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Saturday, 25 August 2012

Medical Affairs

Medical Affairs identify and address the medical needs associated with products, therapies and disease states thereby driving improvement in patient outcomes in line with commercial objectives. Medical Affairs came into existence in pharmaceutical and biotech industries to aid interactions between health care professionals and company representatives. However with time, the role of Medical Affairs has transformed from being a traditional support function to an equal partner role. Besides providing scientific and medical information to healthcare professionals, key opinion leaders and regulatory bodies, Medical Affairs plays an important role in promoting proper and ethical use of a company’s products and therapies for the benefit of mankind. Thus, Medical Affairs function supplements the work of Research & Development and also enhances sales and marketing efforts. By and large Medical Affairs operates as the medical conscience of the company and contributes to its growth and success. Strengthened regulatory and public scrutiny, growing competition and swelling budget for drug development has made the Medical Affairs role even more crucial to pharmaceutical companies' success. Nevertheless the companies face challenge in managing the Medical department due to high manpower costs.

WorkSure™ Medical Affairs provides consulting services to sales & marketing, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, regulatory and legal departments. We at WorkSure are proactive at all levels, identify novel approaches and establish dedicated boundary-spanning teams for different companies. We work at all stages in the life cycle of a biopharmaceutical product/device. The various Medical Affairs functions that we offer are:

Medico- Marketing & business development
The complexity of medical marketing is one of the important aspects of a business proposal in the pharmaceutical industry. Promotion refers to all informational and convincing activities by company and distributors, the effect of which is to bring about the prescription, supply, purchase and/or use of medicinal drugs. Medical Affairs review external communications for ethical and credible promotion of all brands. Across product life cycle, the Medical Affairs provide guidance on therapy positioning in all marketing and promotional campaigns and keep a close watch on the approvals. Medical Affair activities ensure appropriate market conditioning which has a real impact on increasing product awareness.

KOL management & interfacing responsibilities
The Key opinion leader (KOL) management should be aligned with both scientific and commercial perspectives which require optimal organizational structure. Harmonizing KOL activity is increasingly crucial for both compliance and effectiveness. The communication of meaningful information like crafting scientific exchange tools and resources for continued medical education on disease state, current therapeutics, and patient care gaps is the underpinning of ongoing interaction between KOLs and Medical Affairs function.

Clinical research & regulatory activities
Medical Affairs team works closely with the clinical development team for planning and organizing clinical trials. They support clinical development plan, protocol development, investigator selection and meetings, ongoing data maintenance and management, statistical analysis & interpretation, report writing activities etc. They are involved in pharmacovigilance, regulatory support and post marketing safety and surveillance studies. Medical Affairs professionals evaluate and conduct pharmacoeconomic studies to facilitate cost effective health care decision making. The Medical Affairs department plays a central role in strategizing regular audits for checking compliance and quality assurance.
Medical education and training
The role of the Medical Affairs function is to educate health care professionals through the delivery of precise, complete and impartial information that supports a product. External education activities include CMEs, seminars, small group meetings, updates and conferences etc. A sales representative also plays a reasonable role in providing customers i.e. doctors with recent updated information about the products and guidelines. So, sales representatives are also required to be trained to stay abreast with the latest information on the products, and also industry regulations.

Medical communications
Field of medicine is ever-changing with constant flow of new knowledge and information. One of the main responsibilities is supplying the medical profession with the best available information pertaining to their area of interest. Medical writing has established as an important function of Medical Affairs, because it requires specialized knowledge and skills to write scientific documents which are well-structured, and presented in a clear and lucid manner.

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