Flexible Operating Model for Medical Affairs

A large US pharmaceutical company was looking ahead at its pipeline and seeing a resource problem in the making. Its medical affairs function operated on a traditional model — highly specialised by therapeutic area, with teams built around specific molecules. That works well at launch, but it creates rigidity in a portfolio that is constantly shifting. As some products moved past peri-launch and resource needs declined, the organisation faced the prospect of redundancies and displacement in teams that were too specialised to be redeployed.

We worked with the organisation to design a flexible, scalable operating model that allowed medical affairs resources to move across molecules and disease areas as the portfolio evolved. The model was built around a different view of expertise — one that recognised transferable skills and created the governance mechanisms to match people to emerging needs rather than locking them to a single franchise.

The organisation went forward with improved resource utilisation and a faster ramp-up capability for teams supporting upcoming launches. What this engagement clarified for us is that operating model design in medical affairs is ultimately about managing uncertainty. A pipeline never behaves exactly as planned. The organisations that sustain their medical affairs capability over time are the ones that build for adaptability from the start, not as an afterthought when the model is already straining.