Interview With Andreas Gerloff, Daiichi Sankyo Europe - Veeva Commercial Summit

This video provides an in-depth exploration of the evolving strategic role of Medical Affairs (MA) within the pharmaceutical industry, featuring an interview with Andreas Gerloff, Director of Medical Excellence Operations at Daiichi Sankyo Europe, conducted at the Veeva Commercial Summit. The discussion centers on MA's shift from a support function to a strategic pillar alongside R&D and Commercial, the critical challenges in insight generation and impact measurement, and the disruptive potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) in this domain.

Gerloff emphasizes that while MA has achieved peer status in strategic planning across many organizations, a significant gap remains in aligning objectives and measuring success cross-functionally. The core challenge for MA is balancing the need for scientific depth with the pressure to deliver faster, actionable insights to R&D and Commercial teams. He notes that the MSL role has fundamentally changed from a data disseminator to a critical insight collector, focusing on understanding customer perception and alignment with company data. However, the industry struggles with a lack of robust processes and tools for internal processing, actioning insights, and effectively "closing the loop" back to the customer or strategy. This lack of agility makes it difficult to reshape strategy in real-time based on clinician feedback, particularly concerning evidence needs (80% of shared insights) and educational gaps (78% of shared insights).

A major theme is the difficulty in measuring MA impact. Gerloff advocates for moving away from simple activity counting (e.g., number of ad boards or interactions) toward a comprehensive framework that tells a story. This framework should link objectives, activities, belief change, clinical behavior change, and ultimately, patient outcomes. The pressure to prove value and return on investment (ROI) for the significant investments made in MA over recent years necessitates this shift toward outcome-based metrics. Furthermore, the entire pharma operating model is being forced to reinvent itself due to more educated patients and changing HCP needs, particularly the preference for engaging with Medical Affairs over Commercial for scientific discussions, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The interview concludes with a focused discussion on AI. Gerloff believes AI can impact nearly all process steps within MA, including insight collection, analysis, and personalization of communication. While pharma companies are currently in the early stages of internal experimentation and proof-of-concepts, a more profound concern is the external impact of GenAI on stakeholders. Citing an IQVIA report, he highlights that over 50% of HCPs (and 75% of those born after 1990) already use GenAI for scientific information and rank it closely in value to MSLs. This trend demands that pharma think critically about its role in medical education, ensuring accurate information is disseminated through these tools, especially since 14% of HCPs reportedly do not check GenAI sources before using the information for clinical decision-making. Gerloff suggests that the industry may need to overcome competitive barriers and collaborate to develop unified, authoritative GenAI solutions that serve as a single, trusted source of information for busy HCPs, preventing external sources from taking over the educational relationship.

Key Takeaways:

• Strategic Alignment Gap: While Medical Affairs (MA) has achieved strategic peer status with R&D and Commercial, a key challenge remains in achieving true alignment on shared objectives and developing unified metrics to measure joint success against overarching organizational goals.
• Insight Processing is the Bottleneck: The primary struggle in leveraging insights (especially around evidence needs and educational gaps) is not collection, but the internal process—connecting data dots across channels (MSLs, advisory boards, medical info), translating data into action, and maintaining the agility to shape strategy in near real-time.
• Shift from Activity to Impact Measurement: MA must transition from counting activities (e.g., number of interactions or ad boards) to using a range of metrics that demonstrate value along a chain of thought: objectives $\rightarrow$ activities $\rightarrow$ belief change $\rightarrow$ clinical behavior change $\rightarrow$ patient outcome.
• Proving ROI is Essential: Significant recent investments in MA necessitate proving the return on investment (ROI) beyond simple sales numbers, requiring sophisticated measurement frameworks that capture the full scope of medical impact.
• Pharma Operating Model Reinvention: The industry's operating model must reinvent itself due to evolving customer needs, including more educated patients and HCPs who increasingly prefer engaging with MA for scientific discussions, forcing MA to move beyond its traditional support role.
• AI's Internal and External Disruption: AI is poised to impact all MA processes (KOL mapping, insight generation, personalization), but the greater concern is the external use of GenAI by HCPs (over 50% use it for scientific info), which threatens pharma's traditional role as the primary source of medical education.
• The Trust Deficit in GenAI: A significant warning is that 14% of HCPs using GenAI for scientific information do not check the sources before using the information for clinical decision-making, highlighting a critical need for pharma to ensure the accuracy of information available via public tools.
• Need for Industry Collaboration on AI: To maintain relevance and ensure accurate medical education, the industry should consider overcoming competitive barriers to collaborate on developing unified, authoritative GenAI solutions that serve as a single, trusted source for HCPs, rather than relying on individual company initiatives.
• MSL Role Transformation: The MSL function has evolved from solely disseminating data to critically understanding customer perspectives and collecting high-value insights that inform cross-functional strategic planning.
• Cultural Shift for MA: MA teams must continue to "step up," embrace difficult decision-making, and maintain a future-oriented perspective to ensure they remain strategic partners and do not miss mega-trends that could disrupt their relationship with customers.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• Veeva (Implied context of Veeva Commercial Summit and Veeva-developed frameworks/white papers)
• IQVIA (Report cited regarding HCP use of GenAI)

Key Concepts:

• Medical Excellence Operations: The function responsible for optimizing the processes, tools, and strategic execution within a company’s Medical Affairs department.
• Insight Generation/Collection: The process by which Medical Affairs gathers feedback from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and clinicians regarding data gaps, evidence needs, and educational requirements related to a therapy or disease state.
• Medical Impact Measurement: A framework designed to quantify the value and effectiveness of Medical Affairs activities, moving beyond simple metrics to show influence on clinical behavior and patient outcomes.
• GenAI in Medical Affairs: The application of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to automate tasks like KOL mapping, synthesize complex insights from disparate sources, and personalize scientific communication.