Corporate, brand and medical communications ran market by market through different agencies, with no common operating model and inconsistent reputation and issues-management practice in a highly regulated, compliance-critical environment. Each market interpreted scope, approval routes and medical-legal review differently, so quality and risk control varied, capability could not be shared, and the group could not scale a single way of working.
VA built one governed global-regional-local communications roster on a single agency profile, standardised scope-linked agreements that travel across markets, and one issues-and-reputation operating model with medical-legal-regulatory review built into every workflow — so compliance is designed in and capability scales.
Head of Communication, Head of Medical Communications, Head of Marketing Procurement
The strategic problem
Corporate, brand and medical communications ran market by market through different agencies, with no common operating model and inconsistent reputation and issues-management practice in a highly regulated, compliance-critical environment. Each market interpreted scope, approval routes and medical-legal review differently, so quality and risk control varied, capability could not be shared across markets, and the group could not scale a single way of working.
Diagnose & Design
VA ran a marketing & production ecosystem audit of communications across corporate, brand and medical work in every market, mapping agencies, scopes, approval routes and how medical-legal-regulatory review was embedded – or bypassed; spend mapping & cost baseline analysis established the true cost and the duplication created by market-by-market models. A gap & maturity assessment benchmarked the group against best-in-class regulated-sector communications and confirmed the upside of one shared model over local variants, while governance design (RACI, KPI framework, scorecards) defined the operating model – a single communications standard with compliance and issues-management built in – with AURA/Strategic Mapping Expectation used to align sponsor expectations across markets before scaling.
Ecosystem & Remuneration
VA designed a global communications roster through roster rationalisation & consolidation, replacing market-by-market appointments with a governed global-regional-local network selected against one agency profile, and appointed the lead communications partner through a structured sourcing. Remuneration model design introduced standardised, scope-linked agreements that travel across markets; fee benchmarking & validation confirmed consolidated rates were competitive. Scoping & SOW design formalised one issues-and-reputation operating model with medical-legal-regulatory review built into every workflow, so compliance is designed in rather than added market by market, and the model can be adopted consistently wherever the group operates.
Rollout & relationship management
Contracting & onboarding formalised the roster with agreements specifying the shared operating model, medical-legal-regulatory review checkpoints, issues-escalation protocols and common measurement standards; handover, rollout & commitment tracking sequenced adoption market by market, tracking how many markets had moved onto the single model and ensuring each ran the governed standard before the next launch. AURA/Planner back-planned the rollout to two dates – first-wave market go-live and full multi-market adoption – while relationship management kept communications, medical communications and procurement stakeholders aligned as the model scaled.
Execution Oversight
VA applied briefing & estimate review to communications and issues-management briefs at intake, ensuring each was scoped against the single model and its compliance checkpoints before commitment. Production cost validation & budget control monitored spend per market against the shared-model baseline, flagging any market reverting to a local way of working. Bid governance was applied to one-off reputation and issues mandates, holding competitive discipline and the medical-legal-regulatory review standard even on time-pressured work.
Performance Measurement
One model made quality, compliance and capability comparable across markets. KPIs and scorecards from governance design – markets on the single model, medical-legal-regulatory compliance rate, issues-response time, capability-sharing rate across markets – tracked via partner performance evaluation on a 90/180/360 appraisal cadence; cost saving and cost avoidance reported separately. Outcomes: 14% reduction in communications cost, 17% cost avoidance from shared scopes and reusable capability across markets, 80% of markets on one model [illustrative, to be confirmed] (today closure reports; full performance measurement on the roadmap).
Why VA
In pharma, communications must scale without compromising compliance. VA builds one roster and one issues-management model with medical-legal-regulatory review designed in, so every market runs the same compliant standard and capability scales instead of being rebuilt locally.
Common questions
What is a communications roster on one compliant standard?
A governed global-regional-local network selected against one agency profile, on standardised scope-linked agreements, running one issues-and-reputation operating model with medical-legal-regulatory review built into every workflow — so every market runs the same compliant way of working.
How is compliance scaled rather than rebuilt per market?
By designing medical-legal-regulatory review into the operating model itself, so compliance travels with the model to each market rather than being interpreted and added locally — quality and risk control become comparable everywhere.
How does one model lower cost while raising capability?
Shared scopes and reusable capability across markets remove duplication, and markets-on-one-model, compliance rate, issues-response time and capability-sharing rate are tracked on a 90/180/360 cadence — so cost falls as capability scales.