Drug Information Journal - March 2009 - (Page 125) A Pharmaceutical Alliance in Medical Information MEDICAL INFORMATION 125 as a lone entity. This alliance was formed in 1999, between Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Limited (Otsuka), and the advantages of our alliance were that BMS gained a new product, Abilify (aripiprazole), while Otsuka gained a partner with the infrastructure and expertise to market and support a product within the United States and globally. The goal of our medical information partnership is to fulfill all joint functional responsibilities for two medical information groups while working as cohesively as a single entity. Although the principles for this alliance may apply to other areas of medical information such as a call center or MSL team, we will limit our focus to those responsibilities involved with providing written rather than verbal information as well as the review of written documents (eg, review of promotional materials, Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy dossier, sales training material) for medical accuracy and scientific integrity. In general, the division of work in a medical information (or any department) alliance can fall within one of three general scenarios: 1. Primary/secondary services: one company provides the primary medical information task, while the other provides secondary support with medical review, coauthorship, and so on. 2. Duplication of services: both companies provide a medical information service, essentially delivering similar or duplicate services, at the same time and to the same market. 3. Division of services: a medical information responsibility is divided, usually equally, between the companies, with minimal overlap of the responsibility to their respective companies. This may be separated by geographic region. Services in a Medical Information Department TABLE 1 1. Written medical information: • Prepare medical letters summarizing the scientific literature in response to unsolicited requests for drug information from health care professionals 2. Verbal medical information: • Call center to respond to unsolicited verbal drug information inquiries • Medical science liaison team to respond to unsolicited requests for drug information and disease state information 3. Medical review of promotional materials: • Medical review of promotional and training materials, for medical accuracy and scientific integrity Data adapted from Ref. 12. It is possible, as with our alliance, that more than one of the above scenarios are used in the creation and dissemination of written medical information. In general, when alliance contracts are first formed, they do not outline all of the details of how medical information services are shared by the partners. It becomes the responsibility of respective functional units to work out specifics of joint work flow. In our alliance, all responsibilities were divided between the two companies in different degrees, depending on strengths and skill of staff. In the formation of our alliance, it was determined that preparation and dissemination of medical letters, upon request from health care professionals, would be provided by the larger company, while these materials would be shared with the smaller company, which can provide a support function by reviewing materials (scenario 1). For duplicative responsibilities, as in scenario 2, it was determined that our companies share the joint responsibility for medical review of all promotional materials used for product information in the sales field, as well as materials used in sales training classes and consumer materials. An example of scenario 3 is seen when requests for medical information come from regions (ie, countries or continents) not supported by the other medical information team. In this case there is minimal overlap in responsibilities because both alliance partners do not cover the same areas. The division of responsibilities, for provision of written medical information, in our alliance is outlined in Table 2. Determination of which of the three scenarios a company utilizes is usually decided by the strengths, needs, and resources of each partner. Ultimately, this division of responsibility should be addressed by senior management, including legal guidance, during the initial joint venture setup, and the details of the responsibilities Drug Information Journal
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