Medical Publications Budgets Grow Approximately 20% to Meet Increasing Transparency Requirements, According to Cutting Edge Information

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--(Marketwired - May 20, 2015) - As the pharmaceutical industry embraces increased transparency, medical publications teams require the resources to support a growing demand for abstracts and manuscripts. According to a recent study by life sciences intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information, surveyed medical publications team budgets rose nearly 20% from 2013 to 2014.

Among surveyed Top 50 pharmaceutical companies, publications groups supporting companywide strategies reported an average 19% increase from 2013 resource levels. One Top 20 organization anticipated a 50% budget increase for 2014. Surveyed medical device and small pharmaceutical companies reported higher increases -- at an average 24% over 2013 levels. One small pharma projected as much as a 67% increase by 2014.

"Publications output is a key driver for medical publications budgets," explains Sarah Ray, senior research analyst at Cutting Edge Information. "Teams that take on higher levels of manuscript and abstract production require more financial resources to support these activities."

However, publications output is not the only factor that impacts medical publications budgets. Companies must also consider the scope of their publications teams' responsibilities, as well as the number of supported products. In addition, high-output teams typically require more staff and higher levels of expertise to produce effective manuscripts, both of which increase budgets.

"Medical Publications Planning: Uniting Traditional and Emerging Channels to Foster Transparency" (http://cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/medical-affairs/medical-publications-planning/) highlights structure, staffing and spending at high and low-output publications groups throughout the life sciences. This research encourages medical communications teams to understand the risk and benefits of increased openness within the scientific and medical community. This benchmarking study has helped medical publications executives to:

• Employ proactive transparency practices to benefit both the company the public.
• Mitigate the effects of the Sunshine Act as it pertains to publications authors and investigators.
• Demonstrate value within the organization and obtain sufficient resources to enable strategic planning.
• Benchmark publication strategies and resources of similar size, responsibility and output.

For more information about this report, please visit http://cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/medical-affairs/medical-publications-planning/ or contact Rachel Shockley at 919-433-0211.