European medical affairs transformation journey

The challenge

Medical Affairs plays a critical role in key activities for pharmaceutical companies such as evidence generation, evidence dissemination, and very importantly, engagement with Healthcare Professionals. The client, the Global Head of Medical Affairs for a global pharmaceutical company based in Europe, approached Vynamic to support in identifying and defining the strategic priorities and vision for Region Europe, which encapsulated the top six Ex-US markets for the company. Vynamic knew this was a critical project to solve for the client because if they continued to work the way they were, they would effectively be operating in silos and, as a result, the true strategic potential and impact of Medical Affairs would not be realized. Additionally, Medical Affairs would not have a sufficient seat at “the table” to get key investments from senior leadership around clinical trials, as well as input to major strategic investments from the company supporting product launches.

The approach

Vynamic’s approach was to complete a cross-functional and cross-geographical current state assessment, and use that assessment to define a desired future state and to form a strategic roadmap aligned to those priorities. Vynamic’s approach was to understand the culture of the organization, the opportunity that existed for the client in transforming Medical Affairs, and engaging very transparently and collaboratively with all stakeholders within scope.

The result

The immediate impact was a report that identified, from the most tactical level to the top strategic level, areas for Medical Affairs to be able to start to establish themselves as more of a strategic partner. At the more tactical level, Vynamic identified the need to define clearer ways of working internally within Medical Affairs at the Regional and Global level, but also cross-functionally with Market Access, R&D, and Corporate stakeholders. At the highest level, there was also the need for a cultural shift to educate stakeholders to understand where Medical Affairs should be positioned to inform some of the most strategic decisions that decide the direction of the company.  

This was a significant cultural shift within the client company in that for the first time ever there was real clarity as to who the Medical Affairs function was and why they mattered. If you were to distill the impact into one sentence it would be: A realization at the global level that the potential of Medical Affairs was not being tapped into. Vynamic believes that this project helped Medical Affairs in legitimizing and rationalizing their asks for investment.  

It was clear that the client was thrilled and delighted with the outcome of this project, not only on the clarity that the project deliverables provided and the direction and recommendations that Vynamic delivered, but also on how fun it was working with Vynamic throughout the course of the project. Vynamic formulated a strategic roadmap that highlighted initiatives with short-term impact and narrow term focus all the way through to five and ten years road mapping of where Medical Affairs could and should be. Vynamic was requested by the client to begin to execute on some of the short-term initiatives that were identified. It was evident that the client was fully bought in with Vynamic’s recommendations and Vynamic was then able to start to play a part in the immediate implementation of the project.  

The approach that Vynamic took and the huge impact created throughout the engagement is applicable to different Medical Affairs functions in small, medium, and large-sized Pharma, and across different geographies. 

For more on Vynamic’s work in Medical Affairs, see Six Key Elements for Medical Affairs in Product Launch Planning.