Advice You - Business

Managing a meeting is like setting off on a long car trip with friends or family. You need to plan your route, pay attention to the rules of the road, consider what will keep your passengers engaged and occupied, and always remember you have to get bac

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

k home at the end.

Just as adults and children consider car trips to be tolerable as the only way to get to certain places, so too do business people view meetings as necessary evils.

Here are three ways to make an enormous difference in your meetings.

1.

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING

Most of us wouldn’t start a trip through unfamiliar territory without looking at a map beforehand so we don’t get lost. Preparation may be just ten minutes, but a little preparation goes a long way toward making a meeting successful.

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

You want your time to be productive and efficient. Whether your meeting is with a five-person project team, 100 worldwide sales people, or an online multi-location group, you need to consider a few key items ahead of time.

• What is your desired outco

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

me? If the meeting were over, and you were delighted with it, what would you have as a result? Do you want consensus on a course of action or new ideas on a recurring problem? Do you simply want updates on what everyone is doing? Once you’re clear

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

on what you want, you can state a clear Meeting Objective and share it with everyone at the meeting.

• Decide on the type of meeting. Most meetings have four possible activities: sharing information, collecting information, problem solving, and decisio

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

n making. Many meetings are a mixture of these. For every agenda item, think ahead of time about what you want as an outcome. That will help you, and everyone else, know when you’re on-topic and when you’re not.

2. HONOR THE RULES OF THE ROAD AND MANAG

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

E YOUR PASSENGERS

When you’re in a car on a trip, the easy ways to ruin the experience are to get stopped by the police when you disobey the rules of the road or to have the passengers fighting and complaining. The same is true of meetings. Let peopl

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

know what the guidelines are. Do your best to keep the dialogue moving forward. Listen to all viewpoints, but don’t let one view dominate the others. Manage the time and discussion so that speakers change and participants are engaged. If you’re bored,

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

so are others. If you’re tired of a particular voice, you’re not alone. Use the following guidelines to keep the meeting lively.

• Be an effective chairperson. Be even-handed. Make and maintain good personal connection with your group. If you want

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ctive participation, avoid evaluating what people say until it’s time to make a decision. Keep the information and dialogue flowing. And when you get to a decision point, say so publicly. State the decision (whether it’s consensus or a decision to

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

get more info or a selected course of action), then go on to the next steps on that decision or to the next topic.

• Manage airtime. Manage the meeting like a good traffic cop – give everyone his or her turn. Enforce brevity. If someone rambles on and

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

on, paraphrase his or her point and then turn to someone else in the meeting. Draw out the quiet individuals.

• Handle conflict. The majority of conflict in meetings arises from misunderstanding between two or more people. Be sure each position is

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

clearly articulated (without value judgments about opposing viewpoints) and understood.

3. END OF THE TRIP

There’s something anti-climactic about getting home from a long car trip. The ride home seems endless when the anticipation is gone. This happens

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

in meetings also. So end your meetings with a bang, not a whimper. Here’s how:

• Finish on time. Honor the time commitment you made to participants. If you consistently end meetings later than promised, people will either make excuses not to atte

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

nd your next one or find a reason to leave early.

• Identify next steps. A very frustrating aspect of meetings is the perception that nothing changes as a result of them. A way to ensure something indeed will happen is to identify and write down nex

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

steps – the agreed-upon actions to be taken after the meeting. Include what has to be done, by whom, and when. Do this on a flipchart or in some other visible way. And make sure attendees get the notes of the meeting.

• Finally, follow up on the

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

next steps after the meeting. Let people know it matters that they were in the meeting. Check in. See how it’s going. Ask if additional resources are needed. If appropriate, see if a follow-up meeting makes sense as a way to chart progress. Keep

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

people informed.

Again, a little planning goes a long way in making meetings productive and even enjoyable. You probably already spend a lot of time now, clarifying decisions after the meeting or even trying to remember what decisions were made! Cons

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ider the cost of meetings when everyone leaves and remembers the tangents and not what actions will be taken. In this case, the meeting itself was ineffective and no one’s behavior or subsequent action was changed. That’s wasted time – a real dead end

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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