DECEMBER 2022LIFE SCIENCES REVIEW8ll views and opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Pierre FabreSince joining the Pharmaceutical Industry (a.k.a. "Pharma") in 2014, I have held several medical affairs roles across 3 global companies, GSK, Novartis, and currently Pierre Fabre. During this period, I have seen firsthand the shift that is, and has been occurring for many years now, toward medical affairs moving more and more to the centre stage within the pharmaceutical Industry."What exactly is medical affairs?" you ask. "How much time do you have?" I ask. To me, there is not one function within Pharma which doesn't interact with, and which cannot benefit from the collaboration with medical affairs. Let's start with one of the most well-known roles in medical affairs the Medical Science Liaison (MSL).The MSL role was first created in 1967 by Upjohn Pharmaceuticals. The role addressed a gap in the industry due to its unique ability to meet healthcare practitioner (HCP)'s needs by being able to interact with them at the level of a peer, as well as being able to reactively discuss both the company's registered products and indications ("on-label") and the company's pipeline (future planned products and indications ­ "off-label") in a reactive manner. Like the sales representative, the MSL is a customer facing role. However, as a medical function, this role cannot be tied to sales targets and should also not be tied to call number targets. This is due to the reactive nature of the role, i.e. you cannot plan how many HCPs may have off-label requests within a given period, only track/monitor this over time. It is also due to the focus of the role which is on the quality of the services and projects provided (qualitative as opposed to Dr. Sarah TregenzaABy Dr. Sarah Tregenza, PhD BSc (Hons), APAC Oncology Medical Affairs Director, Pierre Fabre GroupMEDICAL AFFAIRS TAKES CENTRE STAGEIN MY OPINION
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