Advisory boards. Every pharma company has them. More accurately, every pharma company thinks they have them. But let’s look at the letter of the law laid out by 8.1.3 of the Rx&D Code of Ethical Practices:
An advisory board consists of a continuous relationship with a limited group of Stakeholders that meet on multiple occasions during their mandate to advise Members on different aspects of their business.
What usually happens is one or two live meetings over the course of a year where all questions you have are put on the table and the advisors are essentially forced to rush through them all and give their first-level answers. These are known as consultancy meetings, and like any other consultancy, you’ll get some answers to your questions. But an advisory board is about far more than a few rushed answers, given at one place and time. If done right, an advisory board should be ongoing – not only answering your questions, but also inspiring new questions. And then those questions should be generating and inspiring newer questions. And then you, as the creator of the advisory board, can take all the questions under advisement and further direct your advisory board to focus on the ones most pressing or pertinent to your goals.
Then, of course, there’s the issue of message importance. When you only have a limited amount of time, how do you decide what to spend the most time on and what to omit altogether? But the real question is, should you be the one making these decisions in the first place? Shouldn’t the advisors you’re paying (probably quite well) decide what’s important and what’s not? And shouldn’t you give them due time to consider your question and give you a well thought out answer?
We think so.
And that was the impetus for Impetus ⎯ a way for pharmaceutical companies to run advisory boards the way the Rx&D Code of Ethical Practices intended them to be run:
– You can set up a Longitudinal Expert Engagement Plan™ that lets you spread out the release of information, issues, and questions steadily and regularly over the course of a year instead of having to handle them all in a short period of time.
– You can use the Impetus InSite Platform® to give your members access to you and each other whenever they want, removing the need for actual proximity. It’s the easiest and most intuitive way for your members to participate.
Think about your next advisory board. And ask yourself if it’s, in fact, a true advisory board or if it’s a glorified consultancy meeting. If it’s the latter, Impetus can help you change that.