Surveys of Medical Liaison Practices across the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Review

Abstract

The beginning of medical liaison programs can be traced back to a small group of technically oriented sales representatives at the Upjohn Company in 1967. Today, medical liaison programs exist in many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These medical liaisons are involved in helping to improve outcomes for patients in a variety of therapeutic areas. Previously, limited benchmarking data on medical liaison groups across the pharmaceutical industry existed in the published literature. To fill this information gap, an initial survey was conducted by this group in 2005 with the intent of identifying the overall approaches used by pharmaceutical companies in defining and managing the medical liaison role. This survey was followed by subsequent annual surveys to gain additional insights into medical liaison practices across the pharmaceutical industry. The surveys have collected information on a wide variety of topics related to the medical liaison role including team characteristics, specific roles and responsibilities, performance review, training, value demonstration, competitive intelligence, health outcomes, regulatory compliance, nontraditional staffing options, virtual offices, clinical trial activities, and career strategies. This article serves as a review of the first four surveys completed 2005 through 2008.