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Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Phil Taylor reports on the commercial and scientific opportunities facing medical scientific liaisons (MSLs)

By phil7taylor on Feb 1, 2012

Medical scientific liaison and medical affairs is one of the few functions within the pharmaceutical sector that has seen a dramatic increase in headcount in recent years, thanks in part to an evolution in the way drug makers interact with healthcare professionals. Sam Dyer, an MSL expert with heritage across big and small biopharmaceutical companies and who runs the MSL career management website MSL World, believes the MSL role has really come to the forefront in recent years.

"The numbers of pharmaceutical sales reps in the US and globally has been dropping in the last five years, while at the same time the MSL role has exploded," Dyer says. "One of the main reasons for that has been recognition among pharmaceutical companies that they need to improve interaction with key opinion leaders (KOLs)." KOLs demand information from individuals who are not incentivized on the sale of a product. (For more on medical science liaisons, see Medical scientific liaisons: Sales reps in disguise?; for more on KOLs, see Special report: KOLs and pharma.)

Dyer cites a benchmark study by Cutting Edge Information a few years ago that found the average time spent by a sales rep with a doctor was less than two minutes, while the average time for an MSL was a little over an hour. "That made companies sit back and realize that doctors valued that exchange," says Dyer, who notes that the expansion in MSL numbers has been ongoing for around five years now.

Changing roles

Cutting Edge studies have also found that while liaising with KOLs was the primary function of MSLs some years ago, their role has started to change, with an increased emphasis on other activities, such as assisting in the design and conduct of clinical trials, competitive intelligence gathering, and presenting scientific findings. "The scientific exchange between MSLs and healthcare professionals has also become progressively deeper and richer over the last five years," according to Dyer. The MSL has an unrivalled opportunity to build credibility with KOLs and the wider medical community by providing medical resources and information.

The MSL's role is also becoming increasingly complicated, given weakness in pharma pipelines, looming patent expirations, and the threat of generic replacement and mergers and acquisitions in the industry. At the same time, MSLs are gaining in importance given the huge reductions in pharma sales forces.

The regulatory oversight of the MSL role has evolved over last few years as well, with new laws and guidelines coming into effect in the US, Europe and elsewhere. This requires a clear separation of medical affairs from commercial functions, transparency over payments by pharmaceutical companies to healthcare professionals, and strict parameters about the type of information that can be divulged.

The biggest challenge a few years ago was to educate senior management about the value of MSLs—who typically command high salaries, usually starting in six figures—yet may appear to make no measurable contribution to the sale of products. "Traditionally, pharma companies have always been about the sell, and that comes from the top-down," says Dyer. "In the past, it has been a challenge to get top-level management buy-in for the MSL role and to convince senior management it is a critical function, although in recent years the situation has improved markedly."

Changes in selling culture

One factor aiding this process has been the change in the selling culture in pharma, which has shifted from a traditional detailing approach toward one that includes key account management (KAM) principles, amid a greater recognition of the value in building deeper relationships with prescribers. (For more on KAM, see Key account management: A special report.)

MSLs tend to be highly educated, with strong scientific credentials as a baseline and accompanied by strong business acumen and high-level communication skills. As a result, they are generally highly qualified, classically trained scientists and doctors. One of the hurdles that often has to be overcome by anyone entering the field is to balance scientific objectivity with the requirements of working within a commercial organization.

In order to engage KOLs and gain their trust, it is important that MSLs remain separated from commercial functions within a pharmaceutical company, although drug makers need to guard against the creation of communication silos. There needs to be some form of cross-departmental communication, but most people would agree that MSLs communicating directly with sales reps and making decisions together would raise a lot of red flags.

"Ideally, an MSL—or his manager, who is usually a director or associate director—will communicate with sales at the level of the regional or national sales manager in order to keep a firewall in place," says Dyer. "Nobody wants their MSL team to be perceived as super sales reps."

Recruiting MSLs

One key issue facing drug makers at the moment is MSL recruitment. The combination of scientific expertise, commercial awareness, and communication skills is hard to find. But all these elements are critical if an MSL is to successfully update KOLs on the latest scientific information and data and build solid relationships with them.

As a result, good MSLs are highly sought after. The problem is, the applicant pool is fairly small, with the entire population across the industry estimated at somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 MSLs.

"We're always struggling to find good applicants, and this is being exacerbated by the increasing tendency particularly among smaller pharma companies to specialize in a particular disease area," says Dyer. "The MSL role is probably the most difficult to hire for across the pharmaceutical industry."

For exclusive business insights into MSLs, attend KOL & Stakeholder Engagement Europe on Feb. 21-22, 2012 in Berlin, SFE Europe and eMarketing Europe on March 27-29, 2012 in Barcelona and SFE USA on May 30-31.

For more on MSLs, see Medical scientific liaisons: Sales reps in disguise? and Special report: KOLs and pharma.

For more exclusive business analysis, download eyeforpharma's Pharma e-Marketing Strategy, Pharma Emerging Markets Report 2011-12 and Pharma Key Account Management Report 2011-12.

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