Key Steps Toward a Promotional Communications Strategy: Collaboration Best Practices for Teams Creating Promotional Materials and Regulatory Colleagues

• Published in: Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 696 - 704
• Main Authors: Raber-Johnson, Mary L., Stinson, Mark, Dillon, Carlotta, Wan, George J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.07.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Best practice; Collaboration; Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance; Marketing; Medical electronics; Medical materials; Medicine; Pharmacotherapy; Pharmacy; Problem solving; Product development; Review; Teams
• ISSN: 2168-4790; 2168-4804
• DOI: 10.1007/s43441-021-00272-1

A promotional communications strategy is considered early in prescription medical product development by commercial disciplines (e.g., commercial/marketing) and informs promotional materials to key stakeholders such as healthcare providers and patients. Health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) is a scientific discipline that is also responsible for the generation of promotional materials to other key stakeholders such as payors. The overarching promotional strategy benefits from consistent partnerships with regulatory affairs colleagues, culminating in cost savings and patient-centric promotional materials. Yet there is a paucity of published content that details effective collaboration between promotional teams and regulatory colleagues prior to medical/legal/regulatory (MLR) review. The following review aims to showcase such organizational innovation from the perspective of teams developing promotional materials (i.e., commercial and HEOR). Behind-the-scenes marketing activities are described in relation to the following key steps that build the strategy’s foundation: insight gathering from key stakeholders; sub-strategy development; tactic identification; and promotional message development. Integration of regulatory colleagues with teams developing promotional materials is imperative to accomplish these key steps prior to any MLR review. Finally, four themes in best practices for collaboration with regulatory colleagues are shared from the perspective of commercial disciplines and HEOR, alongside a real-world example for each: (1) Alignment of Strategies; (2) Shared Process & Tools; (3) Creative Problem-Solving; and (4) Culture of Connecting.