Medical intelligence covers what is being published and presented, which trials are running and what they have found, what regulators and guideline bodies have decided, what experts in the field are saying, and what competitors are doing about all of it. Many programs also bring in field insights: what medical science liaisons hear in their conversations with clinicians.
It is usually owned within Medical Affairs, by medical strategy, medical excellence or a dedicated insights team, and it serves every medical function. Medical leaders use it to understand what changed and what it means. MSLs use it to prepare for meetings. Medical information uses it to keep answers current. Publications, HEOR, clinical development and drug safety each draw on it for their own work.
Medical intelligence overlaps with competitive intelligence, since a competitor’s trial results matter to both. The difference is the question asked. Competitive intelligence asks what an event means for the business. Medical intelligence asks what it means for the evidence, for clinicians, and for the company’s scientific position, and it stays on the non-promotional side of the line.
Outside the pharmaceutical industry, the phrase has a different meaning: in government and defense it refers to intelligence about foreign health threats and medical capabilities.
Our guide, What is medical intelligence?, covers the subject in depth.