Insights into Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products

A vision for
Medical Affairs
in 2025
 A vision for Medical
Affairs in 2025
As innovation transforms the healthcare landscape, science
and data are becoming the foundation for pharma to meet its
obligations to patients and customers—and realize commercial
opportunities. This imperative is further accelerating the
evolution of Medical Affairs as the third strategic pillar
of the organization alongside R&D and Commercial.

Medical Affairs—a third strategic pillar for the

pharmaceutical enterprise
Innovation in both digital technology and the biological sciences is advancing at a furious pace,
while the quantity of data generated is skyrocketing. Estimates suggest that 2.5 quintillion
bytes of data are currently created every day—and the pace will only accelerate as technology
advances, not least through wearable devices and the Internet of Things (IoT). Over the past two
years, so much data was generated that we created 90 percent of the total data that has ever
existed.1
The extent to which the new science and data are already reshaping the pharmaceutical
landscape and the inner workings of the pharmaceutical organizations that operate within it is
already becoming apparent. Business models are starting to evolve both around and beyond
the “product” to encompass the wider therapeutic context, while organizations seek to explain
and contextualize the ever more complex medical science to a diverse range of stakeholders
(physicians, patients, payers). Advanced analytics of patient data have become central—for
example, to support decision making on product use and to demonstrate patient value in a real-
life setting—driven by the appetite of both external and internal stakeholders for meaningful
interpretation of this data.
Individual organizations within pharma have reacted to these trends in a number of ways.
However, the winners will be those organizations that succeed in positioning their science—
especially their ability to combine, analyze, and interpret disparate datasets—to inform their
interactions with stakeholders and ultimately improve patient outcomes. This will involve real-
world evidence (RWE), electronic medical records (EMR) and novel sources of data such as
genomics in combination with innovative ways of mining and interpreting that data. With this in
mind McKinsey has been working closely with industry executives to define and advance a new

1
Bernard Marr, “How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone Should Read,” Forbes,
May 21, 2018, Forbes.com.

2 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

 and far more ambitious vision for the Medical Affairs function in 2025: one that embraces these
profound changes and consequently seeks to drive positive impact for patients, caregivers, and
healthcare professionals by enhancing Medical Affairs’ strategic focus and optimizing the impact
of its activities.

Medical Affairs professionals are the natural owners of scientific data across the lifecycle
How then can the pharmaceutical industry best respond to this future? Step forward Medical
Affairs. With their medical credentials, scientific know-how, and credibility among stakeholders,
Medical Affairs professionals are emerging as the natural “owners” of scientific knowledge and
data within the organization and across the lifecycle. This potential offers Medical Affairs the
opportunity to leave behind its former status as principally a support function and to forge a
new role as a primary strategic pillar of the organization alongside Research and Development,
Commercial, and Market Access (Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1
Medical is transitioning to a new strategic role
within the organization

In our previous report Pharma Medical Affairs: 2020 and beyond, we saw that Medical Affairs
was already at a crossroads: the definition of value was broadening and there was a greater need
for evidence to prove that value; at the same time, new decision makers were emerging and
patients were becoming more enfranchised; finally, we predicted that the number and types of
users of medical data and information would continue to expand rapidly, while data proliferation
and demands for transparency would also accelerate.
Today, we see an even clearer case for Medical Affairs to take on a more strategic leadership role
in the face of current technology, economic, and regulatory trends.

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 3

 Digital—transforming the entire healthcare landscape
All of this has come to pass as the basis from which Medical Affairs must now address the
transformed healthcare landscape. Digital—in its many guises—is of course at the forefront of
multiple advances, especially via its ability to harness new insights through novel types of data
and analytics—such as applying AI to clinical trials, RWE, customer interactions, and internal
data—as well as by providing new ways for pharma to connect and engage with stakeholders.
Digital has transformed the way society as a whole interacts (for example, social media)
and disrupted numerous industry models, many of which are significantly ahead of pharma.
Now, however, digital is transforming both patient and physician experiences across multiple
dimensions: virtual reality, robotics, telemedicine, and IoT being just a few of them.
Importantly, digital has also brought a new transparency to the medical landscape by
democratizing healthcare. In common with the trend observed in other industry sectors,
consumers—patients—have become increasingly sophisticated in terms of their understanding.
Social media and digital have supported consumers through the dissemination of knowledge
and raised expectations; in healthcare this has brought demands from patients, healthcare
practitioners (HCPs), and medical leaders at payers, health systems, and elsewhere, as they
want more complex but digestible and relevant information at their fingertips. This offers new
opportunities for engagement (but on the recipients’
terms), and Medical Affairs professionals are ideally
placed to respond.
Given this context, significant aspects of Medical
Affairs activity need to be updated: for instance,
to rethink medical performance management
to maximize the impact of medical activities. As
discussed, there is an overwhelming need to
embrace the power of data and analytics, as well as
digital engagement techniques—this is essential if
Medical Affairs is to deliver on its future aspirations.
There have of course been some advances. Yet, to
date, many of these initiatives have been ad hoc,
even experimental in nature. Medical leaders should
endeavor to anticipate what the future will look like
for their function in 2025 and beyond and develop
a more systematic and comprehensive approach to
get there.

A bolder vision for Medical Affairs

A far larger and more ambitious vision for Medical Affairs is defined by four core areas of activity
that combine to maximize patient experiences and outcomes (Exhibit 2). However, if Medical
Affairs is to fulfill its ambitions of becoming the “third pillar,” core medical activities will have to
undergo a significant transformation over the next five to ten years, in order to achieve these
goals. We explore important concepts in turn below and how we believe they will play out in 2025.
Further detail appears in the sidebar “By 2025, Medical Affairs will elevate performance across
medical activities to optimize experiences and outcomes for patients and physicians.”

4 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

Exhibit 2
Looking forward, Medical can drive improved
patient experiences and outcomes.
Core deliverables for Medical Affairs

1 Lead rapid-cycle, integrated evidence

generation across HEOR, RWE, Phase
4 1 IIIb/IV and other data, supported by
Step up Innovate micro-analysis to tailor information to
internal medical evidence needs of individual patients.
leadership generation
2 value
Clearly articulate clinical and economic
(including data) to build trust with
partners and accelerate access to
Improved treatment to ensure that the right patient
patient experience gets the right treatment at the right time.
and outcomes
3 Upgrade physician and patient decision
making by engaging providers, patients,
and others with tailored information that
3 2 improves outcomes, supported by a
Transform and Accelerate reimagined insight-generation process.
personalize access to
medical
engagement
treatments
4 Provide strategic medical direction to
the organization steering resources for
maximum medical impact, injecting new
capabilities, and upgrading performance
at scale.

Source: Medical Affairs Leader Forum

1. Innovate evidence generation: Leading rapid-cycle integrated and comprehensive

evidence generation
How we gather, integrate, and interpret data will define the future. Rapid-cycle, integrated
evidence generation across health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), real-world
evidence (RWE), Phase IIIb/IV studies, and so on will be supported by micro-analysis that tailors
the vast amount of available information to the needs of individual patients. Medical Affairs
teams, through their deep understanding of science, data capabilities, and their dialogue with
stakeholders, will be well positioned to understand how to seek the evidence required to support
the entire lifecycle of the offering to optimize patient outcomes.
Embracing innovation in data generation. The new healthcare landscape is starting to shape
the types of evidence generation required both from a regulatory perspective and in response to
increasing stakeholder sophistication with evidence. For example, over the medium term (next
three to five years) we anticipate increased FDA receptiveness to RWE and acceptance of this
data beyond label expansion and safety purposes, albeit that this will be variable by division.
Equally, regulators will be open to novel trial designs and endpoints. Meanwhile, the shift to
value-based pricing relies on real-world insights to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of
treatment options, and this presents an opportunity for Medical Affairs to better support payers.
Similarly, there is potential to support health systems develop their own pathways and guidelines
based on their own data, to enhance decision support for clinicians and precision medicine
through big data, and to derive population-level insights. Finally, patients are increasingly doing
their own research and also looking to track their own data to monitor their own outcomes. Their
desire to share their own experiences and also to seek for guidance from others presents further
opportunities for Medical Affairs to engage.

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 5

 Unlocking significant value with better insights and evidence generation. Effective data
analysis can lead to rapidly improving outcomes and accelerated access in key markets—for
example, cutting-edge cancer immunotherapy drugs are achieving reimbursement at record
speed. Further benefits include expanded patient access resulting from improved value-
demonstrating evidence; increased market share based on comparative evidence and marketing;
a larger addressable market—for instance, through finding treatment-eligible rare disease
patients via registry development; and cost savings with fewer and smarter randomized control
trials (RCTs).
AI-facilitated integrated data generation powering efforts to meet the needs of individual
customers. Data will be the name of the game and digitalization will be the norm—and Medical
Affairs teams will be at the center of the action. Data will not only be much more specific but will
also be repurposed—for instance, RWE data will be accepted for label changes; in many cases it
will also be available in real time. Moreover, there will be much more of it—really big data. Expect
to see patient-reported outcomes across all trials, with some outcomes also monitored in real
time. Data pools will grow significantly due to strong partnerships connecting disparate data
sources and providing wider access, while claims and EMR data across all geographies will be
harnessed by innovative analytics teams housed in Medical Affairs. With the majority of data
originating outside of pharma companies, Medical will need to conduct fit-for-purpose evidence
generation—for example, by combining RWE with machine learning and advanced analytics—
while still remaining nimble enough to respond to data generated externally. In this context,
Medical will need to build proactive and responsive capabilities, and to develop deep expertise
that is continuously refreshed. Best-in-class data generation requires:
—— Deep understanding of stakeholder evidence needs
—— An evidence-generation process that is continuously refreshed and agnostic to data type as
long as it gets to the right insights
—— Deep expertise in all forms of evidence generation (including novel data-generating
technologies) such that the Medical teams know when and how to apply it
—— A competitive intelligence capability that scans externally generated data via automated
intelligence, which then feeds into medical strategies

2. Accelerating access to treatments: Articulating clinical and economic value to make our
products an option for patients who need them
Medical Affairs teams are similarly well positioned to understand and interpret the cost and
competitive pressures across the care landscape, potentially enabling them to accelerate access
to products and services for the benefit of patients. This is already of significance in the context
of the growing interest in risk-sharing schemes focused on the medical drivers of cost of care
and the key medical influencers on outcomes in real-world settings. Going forward we expect
to see a clear articulation of clinical and economic value to providers, corporatized providers,
and patients. This will be supported by robust, customer-centric data models and medically led
outcomes-based contracting that provide the required data to ensure the right patient gets the
right drug at the right time.

6 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

 Navigating a landscape defined by cost and competitive pressures. Cost pressures on health
systems and payers are intensifying in response to an increased focus on value. In parallel,
competition is also intensifying—for example, the growth of oncology and immuno-modulator
pipelines across the industry—and market exclusivity time is shrinking for first-in-class products
as competitors follow on faster.
Understanding innovative payment models to deliver excellent customer service. Given
this competition and the focus on value, we are seeing renewed interest in risk-sharing schemes.
Medical will be critical to the growing number of innovative payments models. In this context a
number of factors are important:
—— Ability to understand and model risk
—— Definition of endpoints and approach to measurement
—— Capabilities to engage and influence providers on overall care pathways to manage total cost
of care
—— Patient care support models such as call centers, adherence solutions, monitoring
Overall, while all medical groups cover a broad range of stakeholders, there is work to
improve customer satisfaction, especially for those who control access: for example, there is
a need to improve support for medical organizations and value-based customers (Exhibit 3).
Understanding the underlying cost of care behaviors will be critical to support access and value
discussions.

Exhibit 3
Medical can improve engagement with medical
organizations and value-based medical decision makers.
Medical customers, satisfaction with field medical interactions
Customers covered Satisfaction with customer performance
% respondents % responding very or extremely satisfied
Academic thought-leader physicians 90% 86%
Community thought-leader physicians 90% 75%

Healthcare Other physicians 90% 25%

professionals Pharmacists 100% 50%
Nurses 100% 75%
Other healthcare professionals 50% 25%

Medical Guideline and compendia organizations 70% 25%

organizations Medical professionals organizations 80% 25%
Managed care medical leaders 90% 75%
Value-based Payer medical leaders 100% 75%
medical
IDNs, GPOs, or similar medical leaders 100% 50%
decision
makers Hospital or health system medical leaders 90% 63%
Health technology assessment (HTA) or similar 40% 25%
Regulators Regulators 30% 0%
Patients and caregivers 0% 0%
Patients
Patient advocacy groups 10% 0%

QUESTIONS:
Which external stakeholders does your organization define as US field medical customers?
How satisfied are you with the performance of your US field medical against the following customers?
SOURCE: Field medical working group (2017)

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 7

 Best-in-class Medical engagement
will look very different from today.
Becoming an expert partner externally and internally. Managed entry agreements and
outcome-based contracting will become more common with Medical a key contributor to
these arrangements. Medical is well positioned with an expert field force actively engaged
with payers and providers to generate data on outcomes and total cost of care on their specific
patient populations. Expect to see formal partnerships with payers designed to reduce the
total cost of care and improve patient outcomes across the portfolio. As the internal experts on
the medical drivers of cost of care and outcomes in real-world settings, Medical Affairs must
effectively facilitate understanding of the medical drivers of cost of care and drive optimal patient
care, especially where the organization is taking on risk: for instance, engaging with pathway
committees, supporting physicians, and engaging with patients on their care provision. Medical
and colleagues in Market Access will work fully hand-in-hand to provide a comprehensive view
of value.

3. Transform and personalize medical engagement: Upgrading physician and patient

decision making around our product
Best-in-class Medical engagement will look very different from today. The future will see a broad
expansion of medical engagement across providers, patients, and others—and across a range of
touchpoints that will be increasingly digital, and designed to provide tailored information focused
on improving outcomes. This activity will be supported by a reimagined insight-generation
process that pools customer data across a range of internal and external sources, enabling us
to understand and inform the decisions of individual customers. Already we are seeing Medical
transitioning to a personalized approach that seeks to understand physician preferences
across their entire journeys, and tailors interactions to the individual doctor. Meanwhile, medical
impact is increasingly being measured at individual provider level, including use of test-and-
learn dynamics to understand the most helpful activities, while modes of engagement are also
continuously refined at the level of the individual physician. Medical’s deep understanding of new
data sources will enable the function to pilot ways to use and interpret this information—likely
in conjunction with Development and, at times, Commercial. Medical is also emerging as a key
provider of information to patients through a seamless combination of engagement on social
platforms and new tools that support patients on their medical journey in fully compliant ways.
At the cutting edge of physician interaction, Medical will be championing innovative approaches
such as virtual reality medical education.
Understanding individual prescriber and patient journeys. Enhanced understanding of
customer journeys—whether this be the patient or the physician’s journey—provides multiple
benefits, including the acquisition of valuable knowledge and insights. Prescriber and patient
journey maps are designed to represent people’s needs, mindsets, and emotional ups and downs
during the full course of therapy: they highlight challenges and opportunities from the prescriber
or patient’s perspective, and reveal the pain points and major reasons for understanding and

8 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

 choosing therapy, as well as its rejection or discontinuation. Many Medical organizations have
seen digital as meaning “more channels” creating fragmented, low-impact offerings. Indeed, in
other industries, best-in-class companies plan and execute along the entire customer journey,
not individual touch-points. Given these factors and the digital trends described above, Medical
must develop more personalization capabilities to understand and deliver tailored engagement
to physician and patients. There is a need to:
1. Develop much deeper and more personalized provider journey maps incorporating mindsets
as well as practices to develop personally tailored communication strategies
2. Measure unmet need quantitatively at the individual physician level and develop a test-and-
learn capability to constantly refine interactions
3. Engage patients more directly and in ways that meet them where they are already getting
their information to support them in their treatment journey.
Listening to patients and physicians… and acting on the insights. Medical has the option
to lead a revolution in improving outcomes for patients with innovative approaches to the use
of real-world data. Expect digital tools to replace many face-to-face interactions meaning
strong medical and scientific content will become ever more critical for engagement, while
collaboration with independent medical education platforms will become the new norm of
medical education. Meanwhile, robust insight-generation processes will feed into all internal
decisions. In future, impact measures will be taken to the individual physician level to understand
how communications are impacting care. For instance, a few companies are starting to explore
the impact of medical activities using data from claims and EMR to quantify how a single Medical
Affairs interaction drives improved patient outcomes (Exhibit 4).

Exhibit 4
Transforming Medical Affairs by measuring the
impact of medical activities.

From traditional navigation of To digital navigation that maximizes

Medical Affairs the impact of Medical Affairs

Progress against high-level objectives tracked Wealth of available data and cutting-edge analytics
without a clear sense of what achievement of these leveraged to measure impact on patient outcomes and
objectives delivers demonstratable progress against goals
Time and money wasted on objectives that provide Data driven performance management maximizes
limited value impact on patient health, efficient use of limited
resources, and trust of patient and physicians by
focusing on what really matters to them

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 9

 Keeping pace with patient expectations on digital. Simultaneously, Medical Affairs
organizations should also define their approach toward patients. Digital tools and apps that
support patients to play a more active role in understanding their disease and adhering to
treatment will become the norm. Digital therapeutics—a connected device plus drug with a digital
component and data output—will enable efficacy beyond the drug and, ultimately, automated
treatment with minimal physician-patient interaction in aspects such as dosing, frequency,
monitoring, and the prevention and treatment of side effects. Patient engagement will be carried
out systematically, focusing on three areas:
—— Gathering patient insights through advanced analytics and big data, behavioral economics to
identify unmet need, and online patient communities and social listening
—— Engagement across the patient journey in places patients frequent (for example, through
social media and via engagement of patient opinion leaders such as bloggers) and supported
by use of behavior change tools, treatment support, and decision aids
—— Patient data and evidence generation through real-time data capture and feedback via
wearables and sensors; real-world data and patient-reported outcomes; and patient-
centered trials (for example, site-less trials, wraparound support)

4. Step up internal medical leadership: Delivering strategic medical direction to

the organization
A radical transformation of medical leadership beyond traditional roles will see Medical Affairs
leading from the C-suite, transforming public opinion of the industry, putting the patient front
and center, and rethinking how company performance is measured to prioritize improved
patient outcomes. We see this transformation of Medical Affairs teams happening across
three dimensions:
—— The elevation of medical strategic planning across all critical processes within and outside
of Medical Affairs
—— An imperative to acquire and nurture strategic medical talent to deliver on these bolder
ambitions
—— A focus on performance management and resource allocation to drive and elevate
performance in this new future.

10
 The implications of this approach include the adoption of an integrated analytics system to
quantify medical impact and provide insights into how different medical activities and strategies
drive outcomes: one example is the development of a system for understanding the “next-best
action” for field medical. Along with such shifts comes a requirement to upgrade capabilities
across Medical Affairs: for instance through adopting “modern learning journeys”—incorporating
new technologies and adult learning principles to advance a comprehensive set of strategic
(including personal) skills and medical expertise—and to inject a new type of talent into Medical
Affairs with a focus on digital. This will require investment in analytics expertise such as data
scientists, data engineers, and translators—people with an understanding of how to apply
advanced analytics to business challenges (Exhibit 5). In addition, this approach will demand
new, agile ways of working such as rapid prototyping and solution development. Once in place,
Medical Affairs is positioned to create additional value for the organization. So what differences
will we see going forward?

Exhibit 5
The scope of capabilities required within
Medical continues to increase.

Medical
affairs A strength-based approach
Skills examined at level of the group cultivating
individual strengths for the benefit of the group
Business
knowledge Comprehensive talent strategy built on blended,
Strategic Business holistic MA capability programs supports and
vision acumen builds skills and capabilities of group

Hiring of specialist capabilities that are not

Adaptive traditional Medical Affairs roles, eg, data
leadership scientists, translators
Customer Enterprise Learning
engagement leadership agility

Technical
skills
Compliance Scientific Technical Digital &
understanding expertise expertise analytics

SOURCE: Medical Affairs Leader Forum

Becoming more business savvy and agile. In the context of the market changes described
above, Medical will experience growing demands from the business, and medical leadership will
acquire greater strategic influence: for example, by providing medical insights to identify strategic
opportunities or risks for the company. At the same time, new ways of working will be important—
in order to engage dynamically with stakeholders and adapt faster to a changing environment,
Medical will need to become more agile, balancing three vital capabilities: speed (with a structure
and governance that enables nimble responses to changes in the landscape), stability (a long-term
purpose, vision, and strategy that delivers sustainable results), and flexibility (the ability to sense
and creatively adapt to pursue value-generating opportunities). In other words, Medical Affairs
organizations need to purposefully assign people to activities of the highest impact in more visible
ways than done previously.

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 11

 Using strategic partnerships to unlock value. Medical Affairs is set to become a critical partner
to ensure product success, including successful launches based around scientific excellence.
Going forward, an effective Medical Affairs group with strong influence over other functions
provides the opportunity to eliminate cost related to, for example, launched products that don’t
meet customer needs—currently such costs tend not to be measured. Equally, Medical needs
to understand and grasp the opportunity to shape a better medical and corporate strategy, and
engage in strong partnerships with Development, Commercial, and Market Access to ensure the
success of the company. Looking ahead, we can expect to see Medical Affairs leaders becoming
“C-suite ready” while more generally Medical will be at the center of medical and scientific
decisions from product to disease.
Transforming day-to-day activities in Medical Affairs. By 2025 traditional medical activities
will be completely transformed by cutting-edge digital and analytical tools and the impact of
these activities will be quantified and compared. Traditional approaches are no longer fit for
purpose. There is an urgent requirement to upgrade the operational efficiency of core medical
activities today via technology—for instance, natural language processing of medical information
requests both to better address individual requests and also as a source of strategic insight.

Four levers in combination optimize patient and HCP experiences

and outcomes
By addressing these four critical areas in combination, Medical Affairs is positioned to optimize
patient experiences and also to improve outcomes. At the same time, specific focus should be
placed on supporting patients and providers by enhancing knowledge and understanding—and

There should be a
hence their ability to make informed decisions. There
should be a particular emphasis on representing the voice
of the patient internally in order to drive innovation and

particular emphasis
customer satisfaction.
Promoting safe and appropriate use. Fostering safe and

on representing
appropriate use of medications, alongside a focus on ease
of use for patients and physicians, will remain a primary
consideration for Medical Affairs—as will enhancing

the voice of the outcomes. It will continue to require medical and scientific
excellence. However, the ability to optimize such activity

patient internally.
will be transformed by many of the advances described
above, notably the facility to link activity to outcomes and
the ability to rapidly provide the right information (and the
right drug) at the right time to patients, providers, and payers. This will almost inevitably entail
system-wide changes regarding update and uptake of new guidelines for drug use and ensuring
access and availability through effective engagement of payers and medical decision makers. A
further consideration will be to assist patients with a comprehensive understanding of a disease
and its implications. Finally, all of these activities should feed into new research to advance our
understanding of a drug and a disease.
Enhancing physicians’ ability to make optimal decisions in partnership with patients.
Patients today are increasingly savvy, making greater demands for information and seeking
access to cutting-edge drugs (for instance, via demands for early access to drugs still in trial). At
the same time, we are witnessing an expansion of providers’ focus beyond traditional clinical data

12 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

to new areas: these include issues of access and cost and value, personalization of medicine with
treatments targeted to narrower patient populations, and demands for data transparency.
Building the voice of the patient into business innovation. Frequently today, there is a
lack of advocacy and failure to represent the patient voice internally—this not only risks the
organization not meeting patient needs, but also serves to promote skepticism around pharma
motivations within the healthcare ecosystem. Medical has a major opportunity to address this
issue by serving as the voice of the customer and patient internally—at the highest levels of the
company. The ambition is for Medical Affairs to lead the way in regaining the trust of physicians,
patients, and the public. To do this successfully demands new thinking around how to engage
with patients. Areas to consider include: how to quantify and reduce patients’ unmet medical
needs, how to be patient centric when designing clinical studies, how to improve patient support
programs, and how to translate insights into opportunities to better help patients.
In conclusion, the four levers described above combine to position the patient experience and
outcomes at the core Medical Affairs activity going forward. This new role will be facilitated by
the function’s ability to acquire and harness powerful digital capabilities and methodologies
to interpret advancing medical science and technology on behalf of the patient and other
stakeholders.

Recommendations
By 2025 Medical Affairs will have advanced significantly in terms of its vision, role, and
influence—see sidebar “How will Medical Affairs be different in 2025?” Organizations seeking
to develop a best-in-class Medical Affairs function should begin to address a number of factors
to improve both their external engagement and their internal structures, processes, and
capabilities, while focusing on core value-adding activities:
—— Embrace the power of technology to transform medical—especially digital, including AI and
other new tools, advanced analytics, and new datasets—by defining a prioritized set of use
cases, building a technology capability stack, and developing a strategic plan for one, three,
and five years ahead.
—— Measure how the organization performs in terms of maximizing patient outcomes both by
understanding the real-world consequences of specific Medical Affairs activities and then
also having the performance-management capability to make better use of such insights to
drive the excellence of the right activity.
—— Directly address patient medical needs, for example through a seamless combination of
engagement on social platforms and new tools that support patients on their medical journey.
—— Modernize ways of working in order to embrace new value-creation opportunities (for
example, through a deep understanding of new data-generation sources and the ability to
interpret this information alongside internal partners), and build strategic leadership know-
how with enhanced skills and capabilities, in order to engage in strong partnerships with R&D
and Commercial.
—— Seek out cross-industry collaboration where appropriate to advance the function and build
talent—examples include: PhactMI, the Medical Affairs Leadership Academy (MALA) and the
Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS).

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 13

 By 2025, Medical Affairs will elevate performance across medical activities
to optimize experiences and outcomes for patients and physicians.

Key MA activities Aspirations for 2025

– Patient oriented evidence planning ensures all data generated optimizes patient experiences and outcomes
Integrated – Global approach to integrated evidence planning with a centralized view of all data generation activities
evidence across the lifecycle in all regions world-wide that covers all data types and end points including detailed
planning customer insights
– Impact of data generation activities measured in terms of change in patient outcomes

– Claims and EMR data will be harnessed across all geographies by innovative MA analytic teams enabling
Advanced real-time monitoring of outcomes on more granular patient sub-segments
analytics – Rapid insight generation will enable MA to steer the company in the right direction
(including – Apps, drug+ and other solutions will create real-time data which will be used to improve patient outcomes
RWE)

Innovate
– Optimized trials will heavily leverage RWE data to be faster and cheaper with better outcomes
evidence Phase IIIb/ – Virtual trial models will leverage virtual platforms and advanced analytics to radically transform
generation IV trials traditional trial models

Collaborative – Shift to collaborative research models that leverage the full extent of industry’s deep R&D expertise to
research ensure rapid output of high quality research from academics and other independent researchers

– Equal use and trust of both peer-reviewed publications and other robust, credible evidence available
on digital channels
Publications – Automated publication technology will drive workflows and radiation of content into all related
communication materials

– Incorporation of value endpoints in all studies to ensure data produced meets the needs of payers and
Value data other value-based medical decision-makers
– Centralized HEOR analytics capabilities with deep brand expertise develops value data and messages in
generation line with global strategy

Value- – Formal partnerships between MA and payer medical decision-makers will jointly reduce the total cost
Accelerate
of care and improve patient outcomes (e.g., managed entry agreements, outcomes based contracting)
access to based field – Medical and Market Access will work fully hand-in-hand to provide a comprehensive view of value
treatments medical provided

– Patient medical engagement will be systematically carried out by MA supported by digital tools
Patient- that enable patients to play a more active role in their disease and treatments
facing – MA is the voice of the patient working at the highest levels of the company to shape strategy to provide
activities patient value based on advanced analytics and insights from direct patient engagement
– MA owns all medical communications to patients as digital disruptors circumvent the pharma industry to
put drugs, clinical information and decision-making directly into the hands of the patients

Source: Medical Affairs Leader Forum (2018)

14 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

zed trials will heavily leverage RWE data to be faster and cheaper with better outcomes
trial models that leverage virtual platforms and advanced analytics to radically transform
nal trial models

Key MA activities Aspirations for 2025

– Global approach to medical and value stakeholder engagement with robust central field
medical excellence function
– Robust customer insight-generation process captures detailed and nuanced data from MA customer
Stakeholder
interactions and other data sources, and uses these insights to shape strategy and ways of working
management – Deep understanding of the impact of field medical and other medical activities on the health of patients
transforms the way field medical teams are measured and deployed
– Connected device + drug + digital component + data will allow for efficacy beyond the drug

– Rigorous analytical approach to identify and prioritize KOLs globally and coordinate across countries
– Field medical engages a broad set of healthcare stakeholders and tailors their approach to meet
Field individual’s medical needs and preferences
medical – Patient medical engagement will be systematically carried out by MA supported by digital tools
that enable patients to play a more active role in their disease and treatments
Transform & – Digital tools will replace many face-to-face interactions
personalize
medical Medical – Automation and digitization will be the norm with centralized natural language processing enabling a
engagement information consistent experience and way to measurable impact

Events and – E-congresses and other innovative methods of stakeholder engagement increase reach of medical
congresses programs while improving physician medical decisions and patient outcomes

Medical
– Collaboration with independent medical education platforms and digital programs will become the
education new norm
and grants

– MA is the “third pillar” of the company with internal and external recognition for the critical role it plays in
ensuring the success of the brand and the health of patients
– MA will lead the company-wide brand strategy incorporating customer insights and advanced analytics
Medical
to develop a deep and nuanced understanding of the customers
strategy – MA will lead the way for pharma to regain the trust of physicians, patients, and public
– Transition to digital Advisory Boards which use virtual technology to gain rapid insights from
external medical
Step up – Pharmaceutical company CEOs will come out of MA
internal – A robust MA-focused capability building journey will transform MA professionals as required to excel
Talent and
medical capabilities
in 2025
– Cutting-edge digital and analytical tools built on automated processes will completely transform
leadership
medical functions (e.g., automated content production and management, automated virtual interfaces)

– The impact of all medical activities on patient outcomes can be quantified and compared across
Performance
medical activities enabling effective prioritization
manage- – Rigorous adoption of performance management supported by new, robust metrics will optimize impact
ment of MA activities and elevate performance

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 15

 How will Medical Affairs be different in 2025?
Looking across the range of core Medical Affairs activities—from stakeholder management to talent and
performance measurement—three areas stand out.

Stakeholder We expect to see a global approach to medical stakeholder engagement applied locally across
management a broad range of medical and value decision makers (including an expanded customer view to
include employers, health systems, patients, and so on). There will be a robust central field medical
excellence function to support a local focus on execution: for example, identification, prioritization,
call planning, content development, all carried out by Global Medical Affairs.

A robust customer insight-generation process will capture detailed and nuanced data from MA
customer interactions and other internal and external data sources, and use these insights to shape
ways of working to support stronger customer relationships through transparency and learnings.

Deep understanding of the impact of field medical and other medical activities on the health of
patients will transform the way field medical teams are measured and deployed, promoting a focus
on providing physicians with the tools and capabilities to optimize patients’ health and outcomes.

Digital therapeutics (connected device + drug + digital component + data) will allow for efficacy
beyond the drug as well as automated treatment—ultimately with minimal physician-patient
involvement. This will include aspects such as dosing, frequency, monitoring, and prevention and
treatment of side effects.

Field MSLs will engage a broader set of healthcare stakeholders, including KOLs, selected healthcare
medical professionals (HCPs), payers, and patient advocacy groups; individual interactions will be high
quality and tailored to individual needs and preferences.

Digital tools will replace many of today’s face-to-face interactions, informed by analytics and data.

Patient engagement will be systematically carried out using digital tools and apps that support
patients to play a more active role in their disease and treatment.

Medical Automation and digitization will be the norm with centralized natural language processing (NLP) in
information medical information, enabling consistent experience and a measurable impact across markets so
that HCPs can immediately access needed information how, where, and when they want it.

16 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

McKinsey and Company has been working closely with industry executives over the long term
to build a deep understanding of the Medical Affairs function. Over 15 years, McKinsey has
published more than 30 white papers with a view to raising aspirations and mapping the path
forward for Medical Affairs within the wider industry. This body of work includes a series of
papers (first published in 2008) outlining a new vision for Medical Affairs, of which “A vision for
Medical Affairs in 2025” is the latest, most ambitious example. Throughout these efforts, our aim
has been to elevate the role of Medical Affairs professionals as we seek to drive positive impact
for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals by enhancing Medical Affairs’ strategic
focus, and optimizing the impact of its activities.
Our thinking is based on the longstanding Medical Affairs Leader Forum, which has brought
together hundreds of industry leaders since it was founded in 2006. It seeks not only to forge
a common understanding around a forward-looking vision for the function but, importantly, to
jointly tackle the most challenging issues facing Medical Affairs professionals within a broad
industry context. Through this collaboration, we have developed a rich database covering
medical organizations’ resourcing and design, with half a million data points capturing the
evolution of Medical Affairs organizations during the past ten years. At the same time, we have
jointly crafted a Medical Affairs Leadership Academy for up-and-coming medical leaders, which
has successfully prepared more than 300 medical leaders over the last four years to lead the
Medical Affairs organizations of the future.

A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025 17

 Authors
Matthias Evers, PhD is a Senior Partner in the Hamburg Office
[email protected]

Arnie Ghatak, MD is a Senior Partner in the New Jersey Office

[email protected]

Elizabeth Holt is an Associate Partner in the London Office

[email protected]

Ivan Ostojic, PhD is a Partner in the Zurich Office

[email protected]

Claudia Pradel is an Associate Partner in the Berlin Office

[email protected]

Brindan Suresh, MD, JD is a Partner in the London Office

[email protected]

Ann Westra, MD is a Senior Knowledge Expert in the Minneapolis Office

[email protected]

Alexandra Zemp, PhD is a Partner in the Zurich Office

[email protected]

18 A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products Practice
April 2019
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