by Natalie Losada
Image from hellophd.com, article: "117: Bridging The Gap as a Medical Science Liaison"
In an effort to keep everyone engaged and prepared for life after the global pandemic – and there will be life after the chaos – the iJOBS program has continued hosting its career building and career exploration events through Zoom. You can find event recordings on the iJOBS website! On April 23rd, Bouncy Castle For Sale iJOBS hosted a Zoom career panel of four Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) from Janssen, Allergan, and AbbVie. They all had unique paths that led them to their current positions as MSLs, but they all included “I had never heard of an MSL before this point in my life”. Dr. Brian Kramer’s earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology, followed by a lengthy post-doctoral position at RWJMS, and then an industry position with a small subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Kramer discovered the MSL career field during a conversation with a coworker, and after 9 months of applying he found his current MSL position on the Gastroenterology team at Janssen where he’s been for seven years. Dr. Jennifer Campbell earned her Ph.D. studying HIV infection in the brain and went straight into industry as a scientific manager with Fenway Health, followed by an MSL position with Stemcentrx. Dr. Campbell is now an MSL on the Immunology team at Janssen Biotech. Dr. Natty Chalermpalanupap earned her Ph.D. in neurobiology, worked for two years at a Medical Communications/Medical Education agency, and then transitioned to an MSL position with Allergan last year. Dr. Nancy Vranich earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience and cell biology, held many levels of medical director positions in Precept Medical Communications and then AgencyRx, but then ultimately moved to the MSL career with positions in Crescendo Bioscience and then AbbVie, which is where she currently works on the Rheumatology team. Notably, after looking at the panelists’ career paths, the main takeaway is that almost no one goes straight into an MSL role. They all started as science directors/managers, medical communicators, and project leaders in industry before they discovered the MSL career specifically by networking with physicians, pharma representatives, and other medical communicators. To understand what an MSL is, it is helpful to first understand why the position exists at all. In the US, there are many companies producing drugs and medical devices that either have similar functions or have similar objectives. Physicians and other decision-makers in the medical community need to be up-to-date on the latest and greatest products and data so they can choose the best treatments for their patients. This is where MSLs come in.
MSLs are responsible for educating the decision-makers in the medical community, referred to as key opinion leaders or KOLs.
MSLs are responsible for educating the decision-makers in the medical community, referred to as key opinion leaders or KOLs, about the products, clinical trials, and corresponding data their company produces. Although the MSL position can be perceived as a sales position, they do not actually sell products –Dr. Vranich so eloquently pointed out, MSLs are actually selling themselves and their expertise. All the other MSL panelists chimed in immediately in agreement – you want the KOLs you speak with to walk away knowing that “you are their partner” and you are who they bring their problems and questions to, Dr. Vranich added in the breakout session. As an MSL, you are responsible for using your knowledge about the company’s products to help KOLs give their patients the best possible care. MSLs have an additional, but unofficial, responsibility of being a messenger between the KOLs and the pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Kramer explained that most of the KOLs they work with are experts in their field, and so “there's very little they're going to learn from MSLs”. KOLs won’t have technical questions, but will more likely have concerns regarding the current therapies/drugs they use or perhaps ideas for future clinical trials. Dr. Kramer expanded by saying the MSL will work with the KOLs to evaluate parameters to improve clinical trials and determine what variables should be measured to give the KOLs the information they need. Ultimately, as an MSL, you are responsible for providing the KOL’s “feedback to your company” to guide future clinical trials and product development, Dr. Kramer added.
MSLs are in charge of making their own schedule.
Although the responsibilities of the MSLs are clear and consistent among biotech and pharmaceutical companies, the expectations set for the MSLs vary across companies. The panelists explained that they are in charge of making their own schedule, so they work from home part of the time but are in the field 3-4 times per week for meetings with KOLs. Dr. Campbell added that if you are supporting company products that haven’t been approved and are in phase two or phase three clinical trials, you’ll be traveling to more conferences to discuss current progress. If your company just finished developing a project, you’ll be working a lot more hours and going to many more conferences, as was Dr. Chalermpalanupap’s experience this past January. Whether or not traveling for the job includes planes, trains, or cars depends on how big your “territory” is – covering the area of New York City will have shorter travel times than covering the entire state of New Mexico, which Dr. Kramer used as an example. Your daily experiences as an MSL can vary greatly from company to company or person to person – there’s many factors to consider! But how do companies gauge the work you complete if you’re making your own schedule? “Metrics”. Your company will decide what geographical area your territory includes, how many meetings you need to have in a year/month/week, the number of participants that qualify as a meeting, what types of professionals you need to meet, and whether or not you need to be reactive or proactive in your scheduling (i.e. responding to problems of current clients versus finding new clients). Dr. Vrenich mentioned that sometimes the metrics include “supporting the pipeline” by putting in hours to do research. These metrics varied among all the panelists, but Dr. Campbell explained a more definite trend that bigger companies tend to assign metrics with formal documentation that the MSL complete, while smaller companies don’t require formal documentation from the MSL. Dr. Kramer described designing your own schedule to meet your metrics as a blessing and a curse – it’s great you get to control your time, but if the metrics aren’t met, your poor planning is to blame. With the background of all the MSLs covered and most of the general questions answered, the event concluded with breakout sessions where panelists were able to answer some specific questions. One student asked “how medical communications differed from MSLs”, to which Dr. Kramer and Dr. Vranich responded that “MSLs have the relationship with the providers and provide them with the content”, whereas medical communications puts together the material for presentations and posters. Further questions regarding interviewing, networking, preparation tips will be covered in another blog post, so make sure to take a look! Finally, some encouraging thoughts: as a Ph.D. you have trained to find solutions to problems and know how to handle data, no matter what field you are thrown into. You have to convince yourself you are qualified for this position, because you are.
"No one handles data like you!" – Dr. Nancy Vranich, to all Ph.D.s
Senior editor Helena Mello