Yearly Archives: 2014

Best Practices in Lifecycle Management: Maximizing the Potential of Mature Brands

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As many drugs are reaching the patent cliff, strategies to extend the commercial life of mature brands is critical to today’s pharmaceutical industry. Used correctly, lifecycle management strategies can add as many as 10 years and billions of dollars to

Medical Affairs Consortium: Impact Measures, Globalization & Compliance

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On November 6, 2014 Best Practices, LLC hosted the 1st roundtable of the 2014-2015 Medical Affairs’ Consortium. The roundtable brought together leaders from: Baxter, Crescendo, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Incyte Corporation, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Santen Inc., Teva, and Upsher-Smith. Leaders from

How To: Stop “No” From Being a 4-Letter Word

Not too long ago, a colleague jokingly compared me to a consigliere. (Think Marlon Brando in “The Godfather”). He said he didn’t know how I got any work done, as people wander in and out of my office to speak

5 Things Pharma Professionals Need to Know About Big Data

Big Data has its roots in a set of statistical methods called econometrics A main feature of the finance, biology, and the social sciences is the apparent randomness of the behaviors being measured. Econometrics exists to distill the random and

Best Practices’ Hosting Medical Affairs Consortium Roundtable Thursday, Nov. 6

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Best Practices designed the Medical Affairs Consortium to provide Medical Affairs leaders with a forum for sharing insights about the key challenges they face. The consortium has developed a mechanism for creating and sharing solutions through three virtual roundtable discussions

Big Data in Pharma: What is Big Data?

We are past the peak of the Big Data hypecycle, not least of all because about half of the content on the topic put out by marketing gurus, branding experts, and other non-practitioners has moved on from extolling Big Data

Pharma Companies Feeling the Heat From the Sunshine Act

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Last week marked the release of the initial data from the Sunshine Act law of the Affordable Care Act, which had been dreaded by many health care professionals and pharmaceutical and medical device executives. So, for the past few years,

Thou Shalt Build Credibility But Plan for the Worst

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As pharma companies plan for the launch of new products, much of the discussion centers around how to position a new drug or device to the rest of the world. Still, much of that same planning can be internalized and

Competitive Intelligence Guidelines & Policies Keeping Companies in the Safety Zone

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Competitive Intelligence (CI) groups are instrumental in helping world-class companies to anticipate and respond strategically to external change. Primary and secondary competitive intelligence research helps organizations to improve their chances for success in today’s competitive business environment. While there are

Developing & Maintaining Strategic Professional & Trade Relations Functions

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Professional and trade relations groups are critical for dealing with a company’s critical stakeholder groups, such as professional, payer, and patient organizations. Despite this, these groups still must show value within healthcare organizations, while external trends are constantly shaping the

The First 3 Commandments of Internal Branding

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In the last blog post, I promised to bring greater detail to how pharma companies should brand a product internally before reaching out to the public. The first three “commandments” generally occur during Phase II of a planned drug launch, and provide

10 Commandments of Internal Brand Messaging For Pharma

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Today’s brand leaders must communicate new disease state information to their own employees as well as to physicians, patients and payers. Most companies rely on established external communication practices to reach internal audiences, but leading brand teams develop specialized internal

SPECIAL: 2014-2015 Medical Affairs Consortium Survey Has Launched

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As the healthcare landscape changes, the Medical Affairs function has begun to play increasingly important roles in clinical development, market education, and regulatory compliance. Now, more than ever, leaders can learn valuable lessons from their peers on how they overcome

The First 100 Days: Ensuring Successful Mergers & Acquisitions

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It seems like every week that there is an announcement of a new merger or some company in the pharmaceutical or technology industry looking to acquire another company. When these announcements come down, a lot of angst occurs for front-line staff