The IFAPP Academy/King’s College, Medical Affairs in Medicines Development, 2018 Cohort is finishing up Module 4 exams, starting this week. This means there are only 2 Modules remaining before the End of Program Assessment, to culminate in the Certification of this year’s qualifying students. Students successfully completing the program will be able to use the post-nominal letters CMD as a designation of their earned competencies.

The IFAPP Academy Core Competencies align with the McKinsey & Co report on the Core Capabilities of Medical Affairs Professionals.

MCKINSEY & CO CORE CAPABILITIES IN MEDICAL AFFAIRS	IFAPP STATEMENT OF COMPETENCE IN MEDICINES DEVELOPMENT
Scientific and technological leadership and strategic vision	Can identify unmet therapeutic needs, evaluate the evidence for a new candidate for clinical development and design a Clinical Development Plan for a Target Product Profile.
Scientific and technological leadership	Can design, execute and evaluate exploratory and confirmatory clinical trials and prepare manuscripts or reports for publication and regulatory submissions.
Learning agility	Can interpret effectively the regulatory requirements for the clinical development of a new drug through the product life-cycle to ensure its appropriate therapeutic use and proper risk management.
Deep understanding of compliance	Can evaluate the choice, application, and analysis of post-authorization surveillance methods to meet the requirements of national/international agencies for proper information and risk minimization to patients and clinical trial subjects.
Strategic vision & scientific leadership	Can combine the principles of clinical research and business ethics for the conduct of clinical trials and commercial operations within the organization.
Deep understanding of compliance	Can appraise the pharmaceutical business activities in the healthcare environment to ensure that they remain appropriate, ethical and legal to keep the welfare of patients and subjects at the forefront of decision making in the promotion of medicines and design of clinical trials.
Emotional intelligence and communication skills	Emotional intelligence and communication skills

According to McKinsey & Co. (Evers, et al., 2014), “the bar is high for Medical Affairs talent. They need to collaborate with R&D colleagues and deeply understand the science that underpins their work; they must understand the rules and regulations governing the industry almost as well as their compliance and legal department colleagues; and they should have the strategic thinking capabilities of their marketing counterparts as well as the customer-interaction skills of their colleagues in sales.”

IFAPP Academy students gain the necessary knowledge and understanding to create patient-centric environments where they can interact with a broad range of stakeholders to provide a more tangible value to patients. This has become increasingly important as “the right talent is often scarce, especially at the local country level.” The IFAPP Academy is proud to help fill this gap by providing online Continuing Professional Development for Medical Affairs Professionals.

For more information and to apply for the 2019 IFAPP Academy/King’s College, Medical Affairs in Medicines Development Certification Program click here.

References

Evers, M., Edd, F., Ghatak, A., Hartmann, J., Westra, A., Nathoo, A., . . . Suresh, B. (2014, July). Pharma Medical Affairs: 2020 and beyond. Retrieved July 18th, 2018, from McKinsey & Co.: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/pharma-medical-affairs-2020-and-beyond#0