I get a lot of questions on what it is like to work in Pharma but the part that is very hard for people to comprehend: corporate. This is especially relevant for those considering transitioning from academia, smaller companies, agencies, or roles like medical doctors and pharmacists into the corporate world. Spoiler alert: it's not exactly what you might think.
The Reality of Corporate
Many people believe that they can leverage their experience with clients and big companies to easily adapt to corporate life. However, until you've actually worked in corporate, you can't truly imagine what it's like. The politics, negotiation skills, and sheer volume of people you need to interact with can be overwhelming. The challenges are quite similar whether you're in a pharma company or a large tech corporation.
Understanding Corporate Structure
In a big corporate company, you'll find individual teams working within their own highly defined swim lanes. This can be beneficial for learning a specific job well but can also be challenging due to the lack of interconnectivity between teams.
The Layered Nature of Biopharma
To give a clearer picture, let's use a global biopharma team as an example. Large biopharma and biotech companies usually have a global team that sets the overarching strategy, branding, and visuals. Local offices then adapt this strategy to their specific markets. Within this structure, different departments like Access, Medical Affairs, Scientific Communications, and the Commercial team all have to collaborate.
For example, the Access team is responsible for regulatory submissions, running trials, and ensuring therapeutic reimbursement in local markets. They work closely with Medical Affairs, Scientific Communications, and Commercial teams. However, each team has its own priorities and defined roles, which means your priorities need to align with them through building relationships and negotiating.
The Commercial Team Dynamics
The commercial team gets involved pre-launch. They handle promotional materials, commercial strategy, sales forecasts, and other similar tasks. You'll typically find roles like commercial leaders, competitor intelligence analysts, brand or marketing leads, product leads, and insights managers in this team.
Medical Affairs and More
Medical Affairs gets involved early, around phase two of product development. They focus on medical strategy, education, and developing materials. This could range from early disease diagnosis to creating data presentations and materials for community use. Sometimes, Scientific Communications and publications might fall under the Medical Affairs umbrella.
Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs
The Clinical Development team is crucial for running trials and developing protocols. They work with experts to oversee studies. Key roles include development leads, medical monitors, study leads, and biostatisticians. The Regulatory Affairs team prepares filing packages for regulatory bodies like the FDA and EMA. Their roles include regulatory leads and filing leads.
Cross-Functional Projects and Interpersonal Skills
Working in corporate often involves cross-functional projects requiring input from various teams. For example, creating a narrative for a new disease area involves collaborating with multiple departments to ensure everyone speaks with the same voice, internally and externally.
Understanding the corporate culture and interpersonal dynamics is essential. You need to recognise the different personality types you might encounter. For instance, a biostatistician might need more factual, data-driven communication, while someone in commercial might respond better to discussions about impact and behavioural change.
Navigating Internal Politics
While most people in corporate are nice, some have their own agendas and can make cross-functional collaboration difficult. It's essential to find common interests and needs to get their buy-in.
Final Thoughts
Working in corporate isn't for everyone, and that's okay. It's an environment where success often depends on your ability to build relationships, negotiate, and manage multiple stakeholders. For those who find this challenge exciting, it can be a rewarding experience.
If you're considering a move into biopharma or corporate life, understanding the complexities and preparing yourself for the interpersonal elements will give you an edge. Download the Agency Advantage ebook and its accompanying workbook for more detailed insights into pharma structures and strategies. And if you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to reach out.
If you want to know more, download a free copy of my eBook The Agency Advantage or watch the latest episode on Youtube.
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