The future of doctors may also be in a pharmaceutical company. The Medical Affairs

Not only hospitals and healthcare facilities, the future for doctors is also in the company. The continuous evolution of the scientific and healthcare scenarios requires a significant change in processes, organization and business roles from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

datamagazine – 31 gennaio 2023

One of the central functions in this transformation is that of Medical affairs, The medical face of the company. It is a professional figure whose scientific and clinical experience facilitates the flow of information between the scientific community and the corporate/industrial context by acting as a link between research and business.

The Medical Affairs professionals, included in the Research and Development Business Units, deal with a product at every stage of its life cycle, from development activities, including strategic vision, clinical research, understanding and interpretation of scientific data, up to to the generation of scientific publications. These professionals commonly have an academic background of medical specialization (degree in medicine or similar) and are in fact the medical-scientific reference in the therapeutic area for the company and the national and international medical-scientific community.

Here are the key roles:

Medical advisor: takes care of scientific support activities for the registration of new drugs in order to obtain their marketing, processing of useful contents for scientific support for the preparation of information material, processing of support materials for the market access, management of clinical studies, medical research with the aim of developing and analyzing treatments suitable for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. He is a headquarters figure of the pharmaceutical company.

A junior medical advisor, with one or two years of experience, earns around 40,000 euros gross per year. From two years of experience onwards, he could earn between 60,000 and 80,000 euros gross per year.

Medical Science Liaison: deals with the continuous updating of products, trends in patient treatments, clinical activities and studies conducted in the therapeutic area within the area of competence. Develops and maintains the Network with Leading Specialists by carrying out Medical Education activities, organizes and participates in advisory boards by collaborating with the company's medical management by providing scientific support to informants. Has responsibility for one or more company products in a specific territory. Generally the territory of an MSL is composed of one or more regions and its extension varies according to the number of hospital/university centers or interlocutors under his responsibility.

The salary for those with one or two years of experience is around 35,000 euros gross per year. From two years onwards he could earn between 60,000 and 70,000 euros gross per year.

The demand for professionals of the Medical affairs is experiencing considerable growth, especially in the last period, and it is easy to predict that in the next few years the demand will continue to increase. The companies in the sector show an urgent need for figures with medical skills, important investments are already underway in the sector of rare diseases and applied biotechnologies and there will be an increasing need for highly qualified professionals capable of responding to innovation in the field of gene, pharmaceutical and clinical therapies.

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(Full article on Datamagazine 31 January 2023)

Editor's note: Ottima cosa puntare sugli aspetti scientifici dei farmaci. Ma chi ci dice che queste figure aziendali non siano un mezzo per aggirare i vincoli del D.Lgs. 219/06 sull’informazione scientifica?