MLR teams play a crucial role in navigating this complex regulatory landscape by providing the necessary checks and balances to meet the regulatory requirements. By working together with marketing teams, MLR ensures that content is compliant while releasing the creative power and extensive reach of social.   

It is essential that MLR teams and Center of Excellence teams understand these best practices as they implement guidelines. This enables them to provide valuable insights to their marketing counterparts as well as fostering a collaborative and compliant environment within the pharmaceutical industry. 

1. Proactive Communication: Invite early collaboration on innovative ideas. Whether it is a new channel or a bold new approach, it is most effective to collaborate early in the creative ideation process on the implementation of these ideas. This can include brainstorming sessions, strategy meetings, platform overviews, pharma use examples, early concept reviews, and proactive planning sessions with MLR and marketing teams to further safeguard compliance. By incorporating feedback early in the creative development process, MLR teams can help marketers by ensuring the cutting-edge content they create can be customized for social media channels while being fully compliant. 

1. Compliance Guidelines for Mergers and Acquisitions: When companies merge, different compliance approaches must also merge. To simplify this alignment, a joint review team should create company-wide reference materials for all marketing standards. MLR teams must create internal teams or working groups to ensure uniformity of content and adherence to regulatory requirements across the newly merged organization. Training all employees under a single set of guidelines or playbooks is a critical step in blending the two organizations into one. It also ensures that all marketing leaders know the rules of the road before launching programs. In addition to setting the overall expectations for each platform, there are a series of details needed to merge the business manager accounts and ensure that platform access is not lost when the companies merge. 

1. Analysis & Insights Alignment: Collaboratively leverage social media tools to enhance insights for both MLR and marketing teams in the pharmaceutical industry. The strategic use of digital platforms enables a comprehensive understanding of both market dynamics and regulatory nuances. This, in turn, fosters informed decision-making and targeted campaign development. Given the dynamic nature of the pharmaceutical industry, teams must embrace a mindset of continuous learning and adaptation. Staying informed about emerging trends, technologies, and regulatory shifts enables close collaboration between CoE, MLR, and marketers and ensures that campaigns remain compliant and effective. Using social listening tools, pharma marketers can expand their insights and more comprehensively gather the perspectives of the patient or HCP audiences.  

1. Roll with the Changes: The one constant truth in the social and digital space is change. These changes range from current platform updates to new platform releases, to changes indicated by FDA and FTC warning letters. Changes happen often, and if each change is reviewed individually by each marketer/agency/local MRL team, it will add unnecessary cost as well as diverge from the standards set by the company. Best practice is to identify a team of experts to review these changes and make company-wide recommendations on how they are best implemented. The suggestions are then shared with each local marketing/agency/MRL team for implementation. 

MLR teams play a pivotal role in ensuring that marketing teams adhere to essential governance standards, assuring full compliance throughout the content and campaign lifecycle. This collaborative effort extends beyond compliance. It fosters the creation of impactful and compliant social and digital campaigns and customer support programs that resonate with target audiences. The synergy between MLR and marketing teams is integral to the success of initiatives that not only meet regulatory standards but also deeply connect with the intended audience. 

To learn more about how to get creative while remaining compliant in social and digital programs, download the brief Tips for Getting Creative in Social Media While Remaining Compliant eBook.