The MSL Society interviewed Mike Abbadessa, Sr. Director US Medical Affairs at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, to get his views on the significance of delivering a successful presentation in the MSL field. Take a look at his interview below!
In your opinion, what defines a successful presentation for an MSL candidate?
The presentation should be on scientific or clinical material to include some technical information and display skills such as:
▪ Concise delivery; ability to condense information into an understandable communication across a spectrum of audience types;
▪ Clear, direct, and confident – poised (not looking at the screen)
▪ Delivery should be factual and fair-balanced; provoke interest
▪ Ability to answer questions in a confident, informative manner; honesty is key.
▪ Enable trust through establishing credibility
How much does the presentation weigh in on the hiring decision?
The presentation can be a deal breaker. If the presenter is bad, it will probably determine their fate with all things considered and assuming moderate competitiveness.
Who would the MSL candidate most likely present to? If anyone outside of management, why?
The MSL candidate will most likely present to key management team members, including Senior managers, Medical directors, Managed Market Access partners – if HCEI is part of the role, and other staff to test candidate comfort with a moderate crowd (10 or so).
Copyright 2018 The Medical Science Liaison Society. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authorization. The MSL Society is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to advancing the global MSL career.
The MSL Society recently interviewed Dr. Arthur Chan, who is the Executive Director, Head of MSL Capabilities, Development and Training with Novartis. In this interview, Arthur discusses what he looks for in an MSL candidate, his inspiration to hire someone for a role in MSL management and Linkedin requests that he has declined and why. Take a look at his interview below!
What are do you look for when someone comes from a different therapeutic area or has little therapeutic area knowledge?
I look for genuine passion for the TA. You’re more likely to succeed as an MSL if you are absolutely passionate about your therapeutic area. I’ve coached team members to always remember it’s not just what kind of data you share with KOLs, but how you share it, how you say it, and a genuine interest to learn from your KOLs and collect insights. In order to do all that, you have to love your therapeutic area. For example: let’s say you’re interested in a position, but it relates to a completely different part of the body than you’re an expert in. First, your due diligence should involve determining who the KOLs are in that therapeutic area, look at conferences to see who the keynote speakers and chairs are. Second, look up literature and clinical trials by these KOLs using PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov, which are free and full of useful information. This is a good way to have an overview of who the main players are and what is currently of importance in this therapeutic area. Also, you should ask yourself, did the previous two steps fascinate you and could you wake up every morning living and breathing this stuff? If yes, then simply being able to verbalize this excitement and share it, despite having no experience in the therapeutic area, is paramount.
What would inspire me to hire someone as an MSL manager?
Not all the super MSLs out there make great managers. I think it’s important to recognize that the criteria for hiring someone who manages MSLs should be very different from MSLs themselves. First, a good manager needs to exhibit humility. I truly believe that if I’m not asking for help and learning something new from my team members every day, then I’m not maximizing my potential as a leader. What I learn from my team members can help me strengthen others, remove obstacles, and help develop people. A good MSL manager should also be willing to be out in the trenches with the MSLs. They should have good pull through on training, lead with integrity, be familiar with compliance and legal guidelines, and be willing to have the courage to provide constructive feedback. Effective MSL managers are also able to and willing to advocate for their teams. They need to exhibit confident presentation skills and be able to manage “up” as well. Most importantly, the best MSL managers have a lot of emotional intelligence. They’re able to adjust their management style to different personalities, be willing to hire people with diverse backgrounds from diverse cultures, and know how to maximize the output of each individual by truly connecting with team members.
What LinkedIn requests have you declined? Why?
This is a good one. I generally don’t accept invitations from people I haven’t met in person unless I’ve been formally introduced. There’s always those who think that just because I work for a company, I can recommend them for a job. As an ambassador for my company and looking out for the best interests of the organization, who I bring into the company affects my reputation as well. A job is like a long-term relationship. For example, would I say yes to a complete stranger wanting to date someone in my family? Probably not. There’s a lot of people who want to break into the MSL role and they will ask for advice or ask me to review their resume or qualifications. I always recommend that they use the resources within the society to seek such information. Then we have all the vendors that would love to work with us. Most large companies have a preferred vendor list that we use for various functions and features and if there is something that we don’t have a vendor for yet, we will search for them.
Copyright 2018 The Medical Science Liaison Society. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authorization. The MSL Society is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to advancing the global MSL career.
Have you ever wondered what one should expect throughout their MSL career or what steps to take to ensure you are prepared for this field? Well below is a brief interview with Cherie Hyder – Head of Medical Affairs at Alimera Sciences. She gives us a glimpse of the MSL career through her eyes.
How does MSL role change with the product lifecycle needs?
A product lifecycle may be defined by 3 main stages:
Development through Pre-launch:
MSLs are involved in many aspects including defining KOLs, disease state and therapeutic training, learning clinical data as it becomes available, potentially assisting with study design or additional assessments that will add value as the product prepares to launch, examining the competitive landscape and learning that data, patient perspectives, planning for launch, formulary presentations, and other things. This is a hopeful and exciting time for a new product on the horizon and everyone waits with intense anticipation for the regulatory approval to allow the next stage to begin!
Launch through Peri-launch:
The excitement mounts as a new product approval brings launch plans imminently! MSLs will be laying out plans to support the launch meeting, educating the organization on disease and key data, how products should be used and approved label, plans for KOL engagement, and potentially hiring more MSLs to build out the team and assure adequate coverage. MSLs often assist with formulary presentations to increase access to a new product, educate KOLs / HCPs on the new product, label, and differentiation from competitors, answering many medical questions, attending medical conferences, and assisting with sales training, speaker training…..a flurry of activity! Bring your running shoes!
Post Launch / Mature Product through Patent expiry:
At this point, MSLs are a well-oiled machine with a ready answer to nearly any question about the product, label, and disease being treated; MSLs may be more active in further research with ISTs and sponsor trials, brand planning, competitor landscape monitoring and education internally, continued KOL development and partnership, looking for new ways to keep a mature product fresh and useful in clinicians’ armamentarium of treatments. MSLs will need to be strategic and opportunistic to breathe new life into mature products and have something new to engage with their KOLs. As patent expiry nears, MSLs may be transitioning to other products, teams or disease areas for the next chapter in a career.
How does one prepare for a successful MSL interview?
Key Steps to Consider when Interviewing for an MSL position:
Unique projects MSLs can get involved with to add value to their organization
The list can be quite long, but here are a few to consider:
If you love writing, ask to help write new SRLs (standard response letters), FAQs, abstracts, manuscripts, protocols, etc!
If you enjoy numbers, ask to participate in budget forecasting exercises, data analysis, managed markets/reimbursement projects to determine costs/value
MSLs also enjoy workgroups/task force committees internally where topics can range from competitor landscape to brand planning!
Updating slide decks and keeping slides fresh with new data is another great project!
Actionable clinical insights from KOL meetings may evolve into new project opportunities
What would inspire you to hire someone as an MSL manager?
This person must have passion, high energy, and dedication to disease state, sense of purpose for why they want to be an MSL, skill sets that are transferable to MSL role such as clinical research, teaching, communication skills (written and verbal), and High EQ / Social skills. They also must be willing to go the extra mile to get a task completed, flexibility to adapt to changes, service-oriented, responsive to seek answers and info for follow up, detail oriented and organized, and a self-driver!
What have you done to achieve work-life balance in this profession?
Work will always be there. We have a duty to our organization to give all our effort each day. Yet, it is critical to remember that the MSL role is a “marathon”, not a “race”. Anyone can sprint for a while and then you need to settle into a pace for the long run. Balance entails knowing you are human; you need reasonable rest, time to eat, be with family and friends and still fulfill your work duties. Work takes up the majority of the time we are awake each day and we need to feel a sense of purpose with all we are doing, but, remember to disconnect outside of an emergency need to respond quickly. Take time to enjoy the day. Many MSLs are type A personalities, driven to succeed at all costs, but don’t let that trait cost you your health, family or friendships. The MSL role offers unique flexibility with home office days where one can adjust family needs while getting work projects completed. We are the ultimate multi-taskers! For me, as an MSL with more than 15 years in the role, I learned to work smarter, not harder….meaning aim for the big wins….the high visibility, high impact activities that align with business needs rather than trying to run circles around yourself doing more and more, often repetitively doing little things that will never add up like the big ones! Help your family understand the demands of a travel job; set up routine skype meetings with kids/spouse/friends and stay connected. Find ways to make your travel time efficient by bundling KOL visits in a city or near each other. Set goals for your next week in advance and allow extra time for the unexpected requests that always come! Set up meetings with yourself to block calendar time to do reports and follow up work after KOL meetings. Balance is ultimately about organizing yourself, aligning goals to maximize impact, orchestrating your field work and getting into a healthy rhythm. Each person faces unique needs and situations regarding work-life balance. Talk to fellow MSLs to get their advice and stop working too many long days, sacrificing valuable rest and relaxation time. It’s okay to say NO or not now; if you delay fulfilling a non-urgent request, the may need to go away on its own!
Copyright 2018 The Medical Science Liaison Society. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authorization. The MSL Society is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to advancing the global MSL career.
This infographic is from our 2016 global MSL salary survey which included 1,677 MSL professionals. We will be sharing multiple infographics and images of MSL data from our many recent global MSL surveys. Feel free to download and use the image for presentations etc., but please always cite the MSL Society.
Copyright 2013-2018 The Medical Science Liaison Society. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authorization. The MSL Society is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to advancing the global MSL career.
Thanks to all those who participated in the 2016 MSL Salary & Compensation Survey. This was by far the largest MSL Society Salary survey to date. We had 1,677 MSL professionals from 69 countries participating! Our 2016 survey is the largest database of MSL salaries, and as a result, it is the most comprehensive and authoritative resource on global MSL salary and compensation levels.
Due to the number of respondents, it took us longer than we anticipated to analyze the results.
This year, we made the data available in multiple versions including the full global results and individual reports for the 11 countries that had the greatest number of responses including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, U.K., and the USA.
The 2016 survey was our 3rd annual global survey on global MSL Salary and Compensation levels. Like previous years, the primary purpose of this year’s survey was to gain insights into current global MSL salary and compensation levels across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, and other healthcare companies.
We broke down each section representing several salary topics including salary ranges, salary by degree, salary by role (MSL, Sr MSL etc), salary by years of experience, salary by academic degree, and salary by company type (large pharma, small pharma etc).
New this year, the salary data is also reported by quartile for each role to allow respondents to understand their remuneration relative to the market.
For 2017, we will create individual country level reports for any country that has at least 40 responses.
Like all our research, all the reports are available Free for all members of the MSL Society as well as those who participated.
Our goal is to add value to the global MSL community. We strongly believe this type of information should be readily available and free! We will NEVER sell the data to anyone!
Everyone who completed the survey already received a link to download all the reports.
All members of the MSL Society can download all the salary reports under the “resources” tab then “MSL Reports” on the MSL Society website.
PLEASE NOTE: We encourage you to use the data for your own professional needs, however, please ensure that you always cite the MSL Society.
Copyright 2013-2018 The Medical Science Liaison Society. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authorization. The MSL Society is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to advancing the global MSL career.
