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CHAPEL HILL, N.C., July 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Patient advocacy groups are a trusted source for patients seeking information on a disease or new therapies. For pharmaceutical companies, strong relationships with advocacy groups are an effective way to reach patients.

Recognizing the importance of the advocacy community to the pharmaceutical industry, Best Practices, LLC conducted a study to identify effective practices in patient advocacy group collaboration and relationship management. The research also examines ideal structures and skill sets for pharma groups that deal with advocacy groups and emerging trends and challenges in patient advocacy.

The new study is the latest in a series of advocacy studies performed by Best Practices, LLC and it demonstrates that pharma is increasingly relying on collaborations with advocacy groups to reach patients:

• In 2014, the number of advocacy groups supported by benchmark partners averaged 7.6 and in 2015, it was 10.6 groups. In 2016, companies expect to support about 15 advocacy groups, up by 40% over 2015, according to the new study.
• Meanwhile, companies have about five FTEs in their patient advocacy groups, on average. These employees have more than five years of advocacy experience, on average, the study found.

The report, Collaborating with Patient Advocacy Groups to Educate the Marketplace, contains an array of benchmarks regarding patient advocacy structure, resources and activities. The 79-page report contains 270 metrics and 30 narratives to help inform advocacy leaders attempting to align their structure, resources and strategies with corporate goals and external partners' needs.

Key Topics of this report include:

• Understanding the "advocacy" landscape
• Effective practices for working with potentially hostile patient advocacy groups
• Advocacy structures that work best
• Advocacy tools
• Critical competencies of Advocacy professionals
• Advocacy Lessons learned from socially sensitive or stigmatized disease areas
• Profiling Advocacy Group experience & expertise

Executives and managers involved in patient advocacy can use this research to compare their structure, resources, responsibilities and strategies with those of leading organizations.

Download a complimentary report summary at: http://www.best-in-class.com/rr1435.htm.

For this study, 24 leaders from 21 top biopharmaceutical companies were engaged through a benchmarking survey. In-depth interviews were conducted to gather more detailed information pertinent to this study.

For more information on this study or other recent primary research studies, contact us at 919.403.0251 or at bestpractices@best-in-class.com.

ABOUT BEST PRACTICES, LLC
Best Practices, LLC is a leading benchmarking, consulting and advisory services firm serving biopharmaceutical and medical device companies worldwide. Best Practices, LLC's clients include all the top 10 and 48 of the top 50 global healthcare companies. The firm conducts primary research and consulting using its comprehensive proprietary benchmarking tools and analysis. The operational insights, findings and analysis form the basis for our Benchmarking Reports, databases and advisory services to support executives in commercial and R&D operations.

SOURCE Best Practices, LLC