Medical Affairs 2030: Innovating the Medical Affairs Model with New Roles, Capabilities & Competencies

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Biopharmaceutical; Manufacturing; Biotech; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Health Care; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
AbbVie; Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals; AstraZeneca; Axsome Therapeutics; Bayer; Biogen; bioMerieux; Boehringer Ingelheim; Corcept Therapeutics; Daiichi Sankyo; Eisai; EMD Serono; Eurofarma; Grifols; Guardant Health; Indivior; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Johnson & Johnson; Merck; Novartis; Opella; Organon; OTSUKA; Sandoz; Sanofi; Santen; Scholar Rock; Servier; Sobi; Spur Therapeutics; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Vantive; Verastem Oncology; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Xenon Pharmaceuticals

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 54 Medical Affairs leaders from 37 biopharma companies. The research team also conducted deep-dive interviews with select study participants to capture additional insights on the numerous innovations and advancements that Medical teams are undertaking for better impact over the next 5 years.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Medical Affairs Vision of Success: 2025 & 2030
• Innovation and Technology Adoption
• Evolving Roles, Skills, and Staffing Priorities
• Resource Allocation and Forecasted Changes
• Enhancing Collaboration and Organizational Impact

• Becoming the evidence generator function: The highest number of respondents predict that the Medical function will evolve to support more evidence generation over the next 5 years (43% of organizations). Others predict Medical evolution toward customer service or care model expertise (23%). Some see Medical becoming “the KOL access function (13%).”

• Outsourcing is affected by resourcing & organizational structure: Of the activities which are expected to have stagnant growth, outsourcing is the most affected by resourcing (large pharma will do 45% less than mid-sized orgs on average) and by the adoption of a standalone innovation group (“no innovation group” will outsource 28% more on average than if an org has an innovation group).

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	Executive Summary	Pg. 4
II.	Benchmarking Medical Affairs in 2025	Pg. 15
III.	Adapting New Changes for Innovation & Improved Impact	Pg. 23
	Improving Medical Affairs’ Technology	Pg. 24
	Improving Medical Affairs’ Roles	Pg. 29
	Improving Medical Affairs’ Skills, Competencies & Training	Pg. 37
	Improving the Impact of Medical Affairs’ Resource Allocations	Pg. 44
	Improving Medical Affairs Internal Collaboration Practices & Innovation	Pg. 48
IV.	The Future of Medical Affairs: 2030 and Beyond	Pg. 54
V.	Demographics of Benchmark Participants	Pg. 67
VI.	About Best Practices, LLC	Pg. 70

• Participating companies
• Key findings from the study
• Timeframe for Medical Affairs strategic planning
• Current factors influencing Medical Affairs success and innovation by 2030
• Rapid expansion of technology use in Medical Affairs
• Emerging roles being added within Medical Affairs
• Anticipated changes in key operational areas by 2030

• Medical organization’s ability to adopt new capabilities, tools, and processes
• Key factors driving the future success of Medical Affairs
• Initiatives to strengthen people and culture in Medical Affairs
• Efforts to advance management, investment, and technology
• Projected evolution of the Medical Affairs function by 2030
• Enablers for elevating Medical Affairs to the next level by 2030
• Required improvements to maximize Medical Affairs impact

• Technology improvements needed to enhance Medical Affairs’ impact
• Peer success story around AI-driven impact
• Current and projected uses of AI in Medical Affairs and tools in use
• Current and projected uses of analytics and omnichannel activities in Medical Affairs and tools in use

• Role improvements needed to boost Medical Affairs effectiveness
• Emerging roles and competencies to support Medical Affairs’ evolving objectives
• FTE additions for new roles over the past and upcoming 12–24 months
• Snapshot of staffing trends over the past and upcoming 12–24 months
• Snapshot of staffing trends by segment: growth segment, stable segment, late mover segment, and no recent or new movement segment
• Qualitative insights on role evolution aligned with Medical Affairs' mission

• Skills and competencies requiring enhancement in Medical Affairs
• Peer success story around enabling advanced engagement and insights
• Qualitative insights on capability-building within Medical Affairs teams
• Real-world example of data sharing to support provider engagement
• Training practices in need of improvement across Medical Affairs
• Qualitative insights on evolving training approaches in line with new demands

• Priority areas for improving Medical Affairs’ resource allocations
• Peer success story around optimizing resource planning and decision-making
• Qualitative trends in Medical Affairs’ approach to resource allocation

• Collaboration practices requiring improvement for greater impact
• Presence and focus areas of dedicated innovation groups in Medical Affairs
• Key sources driving innovation within Medical Affairs organizations
• Peer success story around organizational restructuring to enhance collaboration
• Qualitative trends in collaboration strategies to support Medical objectives

• Predicted evolution of key Medical Affairs responsibilities by 2030
• Weighted growth predictions for Medical Affairs activities
• Predicted operational changes segmented by organization size
• Predicted operational changes segmented by presence of innovation group
• Strategic vision for how Medical Affairs will evolve by 2030
• Future direction of evidence generation in Medical Affairs
• Future direction of customer-centricity in Medical Affairs
• Future direction of care model in Medical Affairs
• Future direction of KOL access in Medical Affairs
• Predicted AI-driven innovations shaping Medical Affairs by 2030
• Predicted data and connectivity trends shaping Medical Affairs by 2030
• Predicted operations and metrics innovations shaping Medical Affairs by 2030

• Therapeutic areas represented by benchmark partners
• Geographic coverage of Medical Affairs roles among benchmark partners