Best Practices, LLC Strategic Benchmarking Research

Creating and Maintaining a Strategic KOL Management and

Engagement System

Table of Contents Executive Summary

Research Overview Participating Companies Key Findings & Insights

Universe of Learning: Key Demographics of Participating Companies ………………6

Structuring Strategic Thought Leader Management and Engagement …………….…9

Administering Strategic Thought Leader Management and Engagement……………15

Coordinating and Communicating Strategic Thought Leader Management and Engagement……………………………………………………………………………………...22

Aligning Software Tools to Support Strategic Thought Leader Management and Engagement……………………………………………………………………………………...30

Identifying and Engaging Thought Leaders………………………………………………..35

Measuring Strategic Thought Leader Management and Engagement Success……..42

Staffing Strategic Thought Leader Management and Engagement……………………45

Looking Forward: Success Factors for Strategic TL Management & Engagement..51

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Identify the most common and

favored organizational structure for

strategic TL management and

engagement

Understand the current state of TL

management practices in the

pharmaceutical industry

Determine how TL management

practices are evolving

Identify innovative practices that are

driving TL management success at

other organizations

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Business Issue & Objectives

Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) are recognized as one of the most effective avenues for building awareness in medical and scientific communities. As biopharma organizations reconsider their strategic approach to TL engagement, they are seeking an evidence-based understanding of current and evolving approaches to creating and maintaining an integrated, strategically-focused TL management system.

Harvesting Insights & Analysis:

Expert Sources:

Objective:

34 TL management leaders from 29 biopharma and device

organizations participated in the field survey, and we interviewed

4 for in-depth insights.

Field Survey & External

Interviews

Formulate a Strategic Approach for:

Improving the Value and Effectiveness of KOL Management System and

Ensuring Alignment with the Organization’s Evolving Strategy and Structure

Research Objectives: Methodology:

INFORMS

Benchmark Class

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29 Life Science Organizations Participated in StudyThirty-four TL management leaders from 29 biopharma and device organizations participated in the external field survey, and we interviewed 4 participants for in-depth insights

Most Effective Way to Coordinate TL Activities

Medical Affairs Guides TL Engagement/Strategy

Strategic TL Management Structure

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Key Findings: Study Snapshot of Peers’ Strategic KOL Management

Many observations have been harvested from the study. These are some of the key benchmarks to surface.

Most respondents believe a decentralized TL management structure is not optimal, though almost 40 percent use a decentralized system now. Most view a hybrid or centralized structure (48 and 38 percent, respectively) as optimal for modern Thought Leader engagement.

Many companies (38%) seek to use a strong core team to lead KOL management companywide. This can be hard as companies employ cross-functional oversight groups with leadership from business units, medical affairs, marketing and others. In fact, 28% said that their companies have no formal KOL management process in place.

Eighty percent of companies said Medical Affairs oversees TL engagement and strategy, but their structures do not support this. Only 31 percent say that Medical Affairs handles the administration of such programs. This represents a potential gap or hole where priorities can become misaligned.

(n=33)

Q3. How is your strategic KOL management and engagement system structured? Q4. In your experience, what is the optimal organizational structure for strategic KOL management and engagement?

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Current & Optimal Strategic KOL Management & Engagement System Structure:

“I've done it both ways. I’ve worked in companies where they had everything broken down by business units and then I've worked at companies that said, ‘Oh no, business units may become too siloed, so let's bring it all together.’”

- Senior Director

% of ResponsesCurrent Optimal

33%48%

27%

38%

39% 3%10%

Hybrid Centralized Decentralized Other

(n=29)

Other Optimal: I have not found any system ideal in trying to handle management of internal team with external KOLs; Marketing & Sales; Optimal structure often depends on the business needs and the size and fragmentation of the businesses.

No One Structure Seen as Best for KOL ManagementNo single structure for strategic KOL management is embraced by the 33 life sciences organizations that participated in this study, although for current structure the largest percentage - 39% - utilize a decentralized structure. It is noteworthy that while decentralized is used by many organizations, it was only favored by 3% when asked what they felt was the optimal structural approach for this activity. Almost half – 48% - said a hybrid approach was optimal for strategic KOL management.

Communication Key to Coordinating KOL Management

Communication was a theme in other approaches cited by participants for coordinating KOL management across functions.

Q13. In your experience, what is the most effective way to coordinate strategic KOL management and engagement activities across different functions and/or groups?

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Coordination of Strategic KOL Management and Engagement Activities continued:

• Define the roles of each functions and joint committees

• Having a defined process and transparency across all functions and groups to increase efficiency and decrease redundancies

• Expert database with strategic planning tool and CRM database for info sharing on activities

• Via regular quantitative and qualitative feedback (CRM tool, OL surveys)

• Regular, collaborative meetings between KOL strategic leadership personnel and relationship owners.

• Flexibility/ Course correction based on both micro and macro trends: Discuss/revise plan based on KOL maps, scorecards (ROI/ strategy), what is working/not working, current and future product mix, megatrends affecting healthcare, competitive inroads, etc.

Communicate effectively

between all stakeholders

Organize & leverage

field feedback

Conduct regular

meetings

Other

Ad Boards & Scientific Presentations Most Valued KOL Activities A wide range of KOL activities are valued by organizations since these respected scientists, clinicians and faculty members provide invaluable insights and credibility. Advisory boards and scientific presentations were seen as the most valuable by participants.

(n=30)

Q22. Which KOL activities below are most valued by your company? (Check all that apply.)

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Most Valued KOL ActivitiesMost Valued KOL Activities

87% Supporting Advisory

Boards

77% Delivering scientific

presentations

73% KOL relationship

management

67% Investigator-

initiated research (i.e. IITs, IST, etc.)

57% Educating

KOLs & other healthcare

professionals

50% Coordinating

company-sponsored research/

trials

50% Identifying &

training speakers47%

CME activities

43% Recruit-ment for medical

pubs

43% CI gathering from TLs

33%27% 33% - Attending medical conferences

27% - HEOR presentations/research involving TLs

17% - Managed Care activities involving TLs17%

% of Responses

Extremely variable. No consistent process that I am aware of. Each team does it individually.

Sales modification of physician behavior affecting sales or patient safety // By tests and surveys // Cross functional team meeting based on inputs from colleagues

Assessed by evaluating strategic utilization on a monthly basis

Market share or clinical trial results

Dedicated FTEs // Monthly report in spreadsheet // Project deliverables // Publications, presentations and IIS plus more difficult-to-measure relationship and advice received

Not evaluated // Not typically assessed within the company. But, during the engagement activities, if the project was not performed to satisfactory level, we will just not engage the KOL again.

Many Have Trouble Evaluating KOL Management System

Like KOL management itself, there doesn’t seem to be one accepted approach for assessing an organization’s strategic KOL management system. While many claim no formal system is in place, a quarter of participants said they rely on KOL feedback for their evaluations.

(n=24)

Q25. Describe how strategic KOL management and engagement success is assessed or evaluated within your company.

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Evaluating Success of Strategic KOL Management and Engagement:

Highly variable/ No formal evaluation process

KOL feedback

KOL utilization levels

ROI

Other

None

29%

25%

8%

8%

21%

13%

% of Comments

Strategic KOL Management Requires Multiple Players, Layers

Executive interviews surfaced several recurring themes around what’s needed for an effective KOL management system: software or internal platform that shows interactions; a coordinator or primary point of contact for medical and commercial and a cross-functional team in each TA or BU that tracks, aggregates and then shares KOL interaction information with senior leadership.

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“Medical should not be creating the commercial strategy, and the commercial should not be influencing medical strategy. Once you get to the very senior management level of the company, we're talking Senior VP level, then everyone needs to be in congruence that ‘Yes, we should go forward based on what we're hearing from the medical and our commercial colleagues.’”

- Sr. Director 2, Medical Affairs

• Identifies/Segments KOLs• Shows Interactions (who,

when) for Medical & Commercial

• Includes Notes Visible only to Medical or Commercial

• Gathers Information from Coordinator, platform/system and across Functions

• Aggregates Information to Show Status of Current and Future Projects

• Shares Overview of Medical and Commercial Status on Current and Future Projects with Senior Leadership

Cross-Functional Strategic

Group(in each TA/BU and includes Coordinator)

Coordinator/ Primary Contact

Point

System/ Platform

• Separate Medical & Commercial Person for each TA/BU

• Coordinates KOL Interactions for Functions that don’t have Regular KOL Contact

• Oversees and Guides Use of System/Platform

KEY ELEMENTS FOR STRATEGIC KOL MANAGEMENT

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About Best Practices, LLC

Best Practices, LLC is a research and consulting firm that conducts work based on the simple yet profound principle that organizations can chart a course to superior economic performance by studying the best business practices, operating tactics, and winning strategies of world-class companies.

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Optimizing Key Opinion Leader Relationships - Best Practices in KOL Management