Medical Affairs Manager

Job Summary Description: Global Marketing and Business Development is accountable for the Global Strategic Marketing and the Delivery of Differentiated Sustainable Brands, built upon superior Customer Insight. This role will provide:
- Lead the optimisation of the use of all aspects of technical data (strategic direction and operational deployment) to drive the differentiation of the brand and enhance its competitive profile.
- For the relevant Brand(s) lead the development and delivery of promotional claims that optimise Brand value, in alignment with the Global Brand Strategy.
- Lead and champion the identification of opportunities to enhance or complete the technical differentiation of the brand through available or additional data; drive actions to resolve and ultimately communicate these through claims.

Accountabilities:
Strategic claims development & optimisation through;
- Leadership of the process for delivery of the Target Product Claims (TPC), ensuring identification of realistic desired claims to maximise Brand potential & differentiation, taking account of the technical and marketing risks involved.
- Continued alignment of TPC to the Target Product Profile (TPP).
- Leadership and delivery of the Promotional Claims Guidance documents and providing expert guidance on promotional claims to the GPT and Marketing Companies.
- Ensure the acceptability of global promotional claims strategy and plans from a technical, ethical and promotional regulatory perspective.

Optimal delivery of the promotional claims to customers through Global Brand communications by;
- Shaping, review and approval of claims in promotional material, press releases & publications
- Analysis of the impact of competitor claims and strategy on AZ Brands through delivery of Publication Alerts, competitor profiles (e.g. pyramids), and contributing to Competitor Intelligence gathering at congresses.
- Appropriate challenge to commercially sensitive competitor claims
- Identification of ?gaps? in claims for the brand and drive actions to resolve this
- Lead and deliver Advisory Boards

Work alongside the Brand Physicians or equivalent to secure alignment to Brand Strategy.

Act as player manager in larger teams

Defence of strategic AZ brand claims through Iinput to complaints, objection handling and Q&As (for GEM).

Brief, select, negotiate with and manage agencies in delivering results to meet objectives in a cost efficient and timely manner

Work with the Insight Team to provide comprehensive Competitor Intelligence on potential competing brands/compounds and companies.

Providing technical review & promotional approval for the Global Brand Communication, ensuring delivery of Brand claims in line with the Brand Strategy and AstraZeneca?s codes of Marketing and Sales practice and applicable legislation

It is the responsibility of the incumbent to create a working relationship with their skills director (in addition to their line manager) that develops and facilitates relevant skills within GMBD. Specifically, they should:
- Ensure that their professional skills are maintained, developed and enhanced through a wide variety of means
- Ensure that brand led skills programmes reach the required AZ standard by being synergistic with, and are benchmarked to, other brand led programmes across the AZ business.
- Undertake regular audits of brand led skill activity to ensure that consistency is reached and best practice achieved
- Ensure all activities conform with AZ and SOX standards.

Line Management:
The Medical Affairs Manager will report to the GBD or GBSD for the relevant Brand(s) and have indirect reporting to Skills Director


Responsibilities

- Strong leadership attributes in order to: align team strategy, inspire the team, focus the team on achieving goals, solicit and value input from others, display confidence in others and coach to enhance performance.
- Demonstrates broad understanding of drug development and pharmaceutical marketing and in-depth knowledge of one or more relevant disease areas (or demonstrates ability to acquire relevant knowledge rapidly).
- Proven good relationship building with KOL
- Experience within more than one part of the business would be an ideal and examples could include Discovery, R&D, Clinical, Regulatory, Manufacturing or more commercial roles. Both Marketing Company and Global Team experience would be an advantage. Healthcare experience is also relevant (e.g. medicine or pharmacy).
- High degree of flexibility ? ability to move from project to project seamlessly as resource demands required
- Working knowledge & experience of relevant legislation or codes of practice relating to promotional activities would be advantageous (or demonstrates the ability to acquire knowledge rapidly).
- Relevant scientific or medical background at degree level or ideally post-graduate academic qualification
- Ability to seek & critically assess information put it into context and evaluates its commercial impact on the business.
- Ability to take leadership within & work effectively in cross-functional teams, ensuring that the team deliver to target.
- Independence & self confidence
- Evidence of an innovative and creative approach to problem solving

Preferred Background
- Successful candidate likely to have 5 years experience (Commercial or Medical), within AZ (or outside) in NA, ISMO or GMBD or with an agency in communications within medical community