Medical Affairs and Marketing: The Evolving Role of the Compliance Officer

By Thomas Sullivan Last updated May 5, 2018

Historically, medical affairs and marketing have directed both the generation and dissemination of information about their products. Digital technologies have weakened that control, opening an array of new, independent information channels. This article explores the unprecedented and unmet need for industry to have their compliance officers be trained to be as social media compliance officers.

There is an old cliché that “it takes two to tango.” This certainly is true in the world of pharmaceutical development where the manufacturers and healthcare providers have danced together for decades to the benefit of patients and the healthcare system. While public scrutiny and suspicion of the close connections between the two has grown, so too has the need for compliance professionals, who are well grounded in both the history of the “dance” and the role that medical professionals play in the shaping and delivery of healthcare in the present.