The document provides a summary of research conducted on benchmarking advisory board management practices at mid-sized pharmaceutical and medical device organizations. Key findings from surveying 35 executives at 29 companies include that mid-sized companies have more advisory board participants on average compared to other companies, prefer national participants for clinical advisory boards, and face challenges in selecting appropriate advisory board members and managing advisory boards. The research was conducted to identify best practices for advisory board structure, selection of participants, operations, costs, and challenges.

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Strategic Benchmarking Research & Analysis
Benchmarking Advisory Board Management At Mid-Sized
Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Organizations

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Table of Contents
 Executive Summary pgs. 3-8
 Research Overview pg. 3
 Participating Companies pg. 4
 Key Recommendations pg. 5
 Segments and Abbreviations pg. 6
 Key Findings & Insights pgs. 7-14
 Structure Of Advisory Boards pgs. 15-23
 Selection of Advisory Board Participants pgs. 24-32
 Operations Of Advisory Boards pgs. 33-46
 Cost Of Advisory Boards pgs. 47-53
 Challenges & Best Practices pgs. 54-60
 Benchmark Profile pgs. 61-64
 About Best Practices, LLC pg. 65-66

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Field Research & Insight Development:
Thirty-five survey responses from Medical Affairs,
Marketing and Patient Advocacy leaders at 29
biopharmaceutical & Medical Device companies. This
reports provides segmentation and insights from a
mid-sized company perspective.
Additional deep-dive interviews with 7 selected
executives who participated in the study.
• Identify Critical Benchmarks
for advisory boards
Operations
• Provide Cost Benchmarks for
Running advisory boards
Research Objectives & Methodology
Research Objectives:
 Best Structure for Different Types of Advisory Boards
 Selection of Advisory Board Participants
 Benchmarking Operations Of Advisory Boards
 Cost Of Advisory Boards
 Top Challenges & Best Practices Of Conducting Advisory Boards
Business Objective:
A well-run advisory board requires optimum investment in resources and operations. To maximize the return on investment, life
science professionals must ensure the quality of meetings and the dialogue that occurs with the advisory board. This research
can help pharmaceutical and medical device executives to best run and organize advisory boards.

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Universe of Learning: Research Participants from Study
This study engaged 35 executives from 29 leading life sciences companies. Segmentation analysis was key to examining trends
and effective practices. Twelve participants from nine companies comprise the Mid-sized Company Segment. Most responses
came from the United States and Canada (63%), followed by Asia (20%).
Benchmark Class
mid-sized Companies Segment

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Segments and Abbreviations
Segments:
• TBC: Total Benchmark Class
• mid-sized Companies Segment (MC): MC is defined as companies with annual revenues between $1-
$9 billion
Abbreviations:
• advisory boards: Advisory Boards
• TBC: Total Benchmark Class
• MC: mid-sized Companies

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Achieving Success At Advisory Boards Is A Function Of 7 Critical Steps
Set Clear
Objectives
Target Right
Participants
Keep Communication Flowing
To Advisory Board Members
Target Right Participants
Track Payments To Ensure
Compliance
Decide Meeting Frequency
& Duration
Share Results
Align Advisory Board
Responsibility To A Function
Set Clear Objectives
Best Practices for
Effective Advisory
Boards

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Key Findings & Insights
 Payer advisory boards Still To Gain Even Footings: Payer advisory boards are relatively new and only
29% of benchmarked companies currently use them. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,
the importance of payer advisory boards will increase over time.
 Segments: Only 20% of mid-sized companies currently host payer advisory boards, indicating
that such groups remain a new concept that still is developing at mid-sized companies.
 Number Of Participants Differs Across Different advisory boards: Payer and clinical advisory boards
average about 9 participants, while marketing advisory boards average 11 members and physician
advisory boards average 10 participants.
 Segments: Mid-sized companies have more participants in all advisory boards as compared to
the full benchmark class. On average, mid-sized companies have 13 participants for Marketing
and Physician advisory boards, and 10 participants for Clinical advisory boards.
 Top Challenges: The top three challenges that study participants face when conducting advisory board
meetings are selecting members/location(45%), managing advisory boards (36%), & physician availability
(36%).
The following key findings and insights emerged from this study.

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Key Findings & Insights
 National Participants Preferred for Advisory Boards: A majority of companies prefer participants with a
national reach for their clinical and payer advisory boards. Almost half of the benchmarked companies
prefer national participants for marketing advisory boards, while 30% prefer regional participants. With
regards to physician advisory boards, 48% of companies prefer a national member, while more than a third
prefer a mix of both national and regional participants.
 Mid-sized Companies Prefer National Participants for Clinical Advisory Boards : Unlike
some benchmarked companies, 89% mid-sized companies prefer national participants for their
clinical advisory boards while 50% prefer national participants for their marketing advisory
boards. Interestingly, half of the mid-sizeds prefer a mix of both regional and national members
for physician advisory boards.
The following key findings and insights emerged from this study.

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30%
20%
50%
60%
50%
20%
29%
49%
60%
60%
Others
Payer Advisory
Board
Marketing Advisory
Board
Clinical Advisory
Board
Physician Advisory
Board
Type of Advisory Board Used:
Q. Please indicate the advisory board(s) that currently has a presence in you organization.
Mid-sized Companies Host Marketing, Physician and Clinical Advisory
Boards
% Respondents
N=35
Others: Pharmacist Advisory
Board, Patient,
Scientific Advisory Board,
More than half of both the total benchmark class and mid-sized company segment have physician and clinical advisory boards,
while marketing advisory boards are hosted at about half of both segments. Payer advisory boards remain unused within both
groups.
N=10
Total Benchmark Class Mid-sized
Companies

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9.2
11.2
10.2
9.7
12.8 12.7
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
Clinical Advisory Board Marketing Advisory Board Physician Advisory Board
Q. Please provide the number of participants present in your advisory board.
Mid-sized companies have more number of members across their advisory boards vis-à-vis benchmarked companies. On
average, mid-sized companies have 10-13 members in their advisory boards, whereas the average number of participants across
the total benchmark class is 9-11 participants.
Mid-sized Companies Have 10-13 Members Across All Advisory Boards
N=5-7N=11-22
Average Number Of Participants in Each Segment
Total Benchmark Class Mid-sized Companies

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Q, Please indicate the preferred reach of advisory board members.
N=11-23
National Participants and Reach Favored for Most Advisory Boards
% Respondents
Reach of Participants
N=6-9
Companies continue to seek out national participants or create advisory boards with a national reach, as opposed to a
regional reach. That said, regional participants can be important for both physician and payer advisory boards as companies
will explore regional regulations and differences that can influence how a drug is presented in a specific geography
Total
Benchmark
Class
*Mid-sized
Company
86%
47%
64% 52%
5%
26%
36%
13%
9%
26% 35%
Clinical Advisory Board Marketing Advisory
Board
Payer Advisory Board Physician Advisory
Board
National Regional Both
89%
50%
33%
17%
17%
11%
33%
50%
Clinical Advisory Board Marketing Advisory Board Physician Advisory Board
*Limited data for Payer advisory boards in mid-sized segment

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Q. What are the top three challenges you encountered when conducting advisory boards?
N=22
Benchmark class members identified several challenges that they face while conducting advisory boards meetings. The top
three challenges are selecting members (45%), managing and planning advisory boards (36%) and physicians availability (36%).
Selecting Appropriate Members is Most Tricky
% Respondents
14%
14%
18%
23%
23%
27%
27%
36%
36%
45%
Regulatory Hurdles
Others
Fees
Scheduling
Ensuring Actionable Endpoints
Content
Getting Active Participation
Physcian's Avaliability
Moderating/Management/Planning
Selecting Members/Location
Top Challenges
Other Responses
• How to keep a stable group of advisors
• Getting contracts back from Legal in a timely
manner
• Commercial involvement

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N=35
The vast majority of insights (approximately 63% ) in this benchmark study come from bio-pharma professionals serving the
United States market. Study insights were also contributed from bio-pharma leaders working in Asian, European, Middle East &
Australian markets.
Q1 Benchmark Research Captures Insights Mainly From US, Asia & Europe
% Respondents
North
America: 63% Europe: 11%
Asia: 20%
Middle East:
3%
Australia:
3%
Q. Contact Information: Please provide the following information, which will be used for classification purposes and
to ensure that you receive your copy of the study deliverable.
Geography

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Q. Please indicate your industry. [Choose all that apply.]
Participation came from across various industries in each segments. Overall 71% of companies represented pharma industry
while About 20% were from bio-tech and medical devices each.
Insights Harvested from Organizations Representing Different Industries
% Respondents
N=35
Others: Nutrition
Service provider
Industry
71%
23%
20%
9%
6%
77%
30%
67%
0%
0%
80%
20%
20%
10%
10%
58%
25%
25%
17%
8%
Pharmaceutical
Biotechnology
Medical Device
Diagnostic
Other
Total Benchmark Class Large Companies Mid-cap Companies Small Companies

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