Do we really listen to the feedback of our Scientific Leaders? How can we get unbiased feedback on our programs?

Scientific Leaders (SLs) have tremendous knowledge that can be valuable to pharmaceuticals. But asking the right questions and getting honest feedback into the system can be tough.

Asking the right questions

As a member of a pharmaceutical medical or commercial team, you spend a lot of time setting up and holding meetings with SLs. Are you making the best use of those valuable meetings? What questions are you asking? Here are some ideas for maximizing the value of the questions.

Don’t: Ask a question to get a positive answer e.g. “What do you think of our great data?”

Do: Ask an open-ended question e.g. “What is the most amazing data in tumor X you observed at this meeting and why?”

Don’t: Would you say our product is better?

Do: What do you think differentiates this class of medications?

Don’t: Will there be a cost or payer issue with this drug?

Do: Do you foresee any patient barriers with this medication?

Do: Do you see any cost or other barriers to the delivery of this treatment?

It would be wonderful if we could get honest, unbiased feedback for our commercial, medical and clinical initiatives. And that starts with the right questions. But that’s not enough.

The importance of asking

The problem with not listening is widespread and not limited to our profession. But for us it has real costs. Here’s a personal example that helps show the problem.

I once developed a medication that was excellent in terms of efficacy. But it was clinically tested only in the academic centers that had experience in administering this type of therapeutic. However, most of the target patients were in a non-academic or community setting that didn’t have the capability to deliver the medication. This made commercialization challenging because of the disconnect between the target patients and their healthcare site.

Could we have avoided this issue? Yes! First, the internal teams needed honest and unbiased opinions before launch. This way, the medical teams could have been prepared and educated the community centers on how to administer the medication. Also, the commercial teams could have messaged directly to these community sites. But asking the tough questions is not natural, and neither is carefully and accurately recording the response.

Listening to the answer

One way to address this is to bring in an experienced and unbiased third party. They can help formulate the right questions beforehand. Then they can ask the questions and listen to the answers.

For example, we might ask questions on drugs in a particular drug class or particular tumor type. Once we get an answer, then we can ask the SLs directly about the medication of interest. It is also beneficial to go outside the academic centers to understand how patients are being treated in a real-world setting.

We can do much better in asking and listening, and Golgi is here to help. Ask us how we can help you in getting unbiased information and remove barriers to serving your patients.