Medical Affairs Operational Excellence

Summary

Through internal analysis, a competitive benchmarking study, and development of a strategic roadmap, our team supported an oncology-focused global biopharma company on an operational excellence initiative to increase the value its medical affairs organization delivers to its customers.

Situation

After successfully launching its first oncology product, our client wanted to increase the value its medical affairs group delivered both internally and externally to help support the organization’s growth goals and deliver on its customers’ heightened expectations of medical affairs. The client sought our team’s help in defining an effective approach and strategy for achieving medical affairs operational excellence.

SciVida’s Approach

We began by proposing a three-pronged approach entailing (1) a comprehensive situation assessment with desk research, cross-functional internal primary research, and a competitive benchmarking study, (2) a multiple-day strategy workshop, and (3) development of strategic recommendations and detailed action plans. 

Our team conducted primary research with internal stakeholders across all relevant functions as well as external stakeholders at competitor companies in a double-blinded benchmarking format. The benchmarking study focused on identifying and elucidating best practices across the industry. Combining the primary research insights from thousands of data points with internal client documentation and findings from our desk research, our team developed an in-depth assessment of the situation.

From the assessment, we identified the strengths of the client’s existing medical affairs organization and more importantly the opportunities for enhancement and the focus areas for the upcoming strategic workshop. During the workshop, we facilitated several interactive exercises, including multiple brainstorming and prioritizing sessions, and held in-depth group discussions to generate the overall vision for the medical affairs function, strategic imperatives necessary for achieving the vision, and high-level action plans for each.

Armed with the insights and output from the strategic workshop, our team then developed a roadmap—as well as detailed action plans for each strategic imperative—for achieving excellence in medical affairs. We also laid out near-term, mid-range, and long-term priorities for the medical affairs group. Finally, we defined a clear and actionable path forward for the client.