The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly evolving, and Medical Affairs is at the forefront of this transformation. As a clinician, it is an exciting time to think about the possibilities and how several emerging factors are coming together to help this function become a critical part of the future of drug commercialization.
Late last year, McKinsey & Company published a white paper titled “A Vision for Medical Affairs 2030, Five Priorities for Patient Impact.” It predicts that in a few short years, the changing landscape, coupled with investments in science innovation, will highlight the value that medical affairs brings to drug launches. And I think they are right.
Every day, I see the need for medically trained and scientific experts to dive deeper into available data to help manufacturers understand the right strategy to reach more patients. This has been fueled, in large part, by the rise of real-world evidence (RWE) capabilities, which have scaled and advanced rapidly.
A decade ago, the industry began to see the need to reshape the role of medical affairs. It needs to be a coequal third pillar of pharmaceutical companies alongside research and development and commercialization. This is a reality today, or at least moving in that direction.
The five priorities discussed in the McKinsey report are boosting medical affairs leadership, integrating end-to-end data and analytics, differentiating medical strategies, aligning evidence generation with stakeholder needs and orchestrating medical engagement.
Let’s look at each.
- Boosting medical affairs leadership is a critical role for pharma. As new products are developed and commercialized, having a medical affairs leader or leaders as a part of the strategy is vital. These experts bring the clinical and scientific knowledge to really help ensure nothing is missed. Companies that invest in these experts will be successful.
- Integrating end-to-end data and analytics is also vital. Today we have so many data sources we can leverage to do predictive analytics to learn who the right patients are, where high-prescribing doctors are located, what connections exist between conditions and so much more. Incorporating a robust data and analytics strategy that incorporates Real World Evidence (RWE) into a medical affairs strategy is very important. Data drives action. In addition, predictive analytics, powered by machine learning, can play a crucial role in improving medication adherence. By analyzing patient data, such as prescription history and socioeconomic factors, algorithms can identify individuals at risk of non-adherence. Machine learning allows data integration from wearable devices and patient-reported information. This can enable medical affairs teams to proactively assist with educational resources to improve adherence and health outcomes. Using patient health records, genetic information and environmental factors, these models identify early disease indicators, which can aid in tailoring treatment plans and timely interventions. This proactive approach allows medical affairs teams to support education on optimal personalized treatment strategies. This in turn helps to ultimately create more personalized regimens, which align with precision medicine, consider unique patient factors and foster a more individualized healthcare paradigm.
- Differentiating medical strategies is about ensuring commercialization strategies match the medical strategies that clinicians in healthcare facilities across the world expect. Trained medical professionals and scientists know what it takes to serve patients and this knowledge and experience are crucial.
- Aligning evidence generation with stakeholder needs involves doubling down on data, especially RWE that wasn’t available a decade or more ago. Medical affairs experts need to use it, promote it and continue to champion it.
- Orchestrating medical engagement means always thinking about what frontline clinicians need to know about the drug or therapy you’re helping bring to market and why it may be right for their patients and ensuring the right approaches are in place to meet clinicians where they are in an era where they are inundated with responsibilities.
The future of medical affairs lies in its ability to navigate these rapidly changing dynamics while leveraging the power of innovative technology. Natural language processing models and generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) are already transforming traditional activities. Pharmaceutical companies continue to experiment with Gen AI for real-time insight collection and synthesis, medical writing automation and the production of images, animations and videos.
However, the journey is not complete. Progress in transforming medical affairs continues to be hindered by capability gaps, budgetary constraints, organizational misalignment and competing priorities. And yet progress continues.
As the industry moves forward, the medical affairs function will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping its future and improving patient outcomes. Now is the time to act decisively and embrace this transformation.
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