When medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review processes take months instead of weeks, it’s not just an issue for pharma companies that risk losing competitive advantage. It’s also a real problem for the marketing agencies that service these life sciences companies. 

When marketing agencies sign on to work with a pharma company, whether for a single campaign, a massive drug launch, or anything in between, the agency agrees to get all deliverables across the finish line. For pharma industry clients, that means all content must pass MLR review (note: MLR review is also also called the PRC (Promotional Review Committee), CMLR (Commercial, Medical, Legal, Regulatory), or simply promotional review]. 

But multiple MLR cycles can mean unpaid labor, vanishing profit margins, and dissatisfied customers, as they get stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of revision, resubmission, rework. 

Doing the math 

It’s easy to see how extended MLR review processes drain marketing agency profits. Agencies typically budget for 2-3 revision rounds, and it’s not always the case that extra charges can be added for additional rounds. With each subsequent round, profitability tanks, despite most agencies operating on slim margins already. 

An example project

Let’s say a pharmaceutical company engages a marketing agency to create a three-touch email campaign to support the launch of their new biologic drug. 

Original client project fee: $25,000

Revisions included: 3 rounds 

Estimated internal labor: 200 hours

Fully burdened staff cost: $85/hour

Target margin: 15-30%

Now, let’s say the agency is skilled at scoping and assumes the project will be pretty straightforward. Using the numbers above, they can expect to make a gross profit of $8,000 on their $25,000 project, or, a healthy 32%. 

But what happens when the MLR process means 6 additional rounds are required? If each round requires 10 hours of work (designer, strategist, copywriter, account manager, etc), the agency has just burned another 60 hours. At $85 per hour, the profit takes a $5,100 hit. 

After 9 rounds of revisions, the gross profit has dropped from $8,000 to $2,900, or a less-than-ideal 11.6%. 

Here’s some more collateral damage: When project managers, writers, designers, and reviewers are tied up on projects that are moving at a snail’s pace, the entire pipeline slows down, as team members can’t move onto the next project in a timely manner. 

What’s more, dragging projects and client-agency tensions can lead to burnout among agency team members, which also affects operating costs. And, project delays and missed deadlines can cause an agency’s reputation to plummet. 

US pharma ad spend exceeds $30 billion annually, with digital marketing alone topping $19.5 billion. It’s no doubt a huge opportunity for marketing agencies working in the space, but MLR challenges put into question its longer term profitability.

A better approach for savvy agencies

Agencies don’t have to settle for long, drawn out, and profit-sinking MLR processes. Revisto’s AI-powered MLR pre-checks can do a comprehensive pre-review for marketing agencies, helping them identify 90% of compliance and regulatory issues before submitting to clients. 

Revisto Studio checks for: 

• Regulatory compliance, identifying deviations from FDA 21 CFR Part 202, EMA guidelines, and regional standards

• Fair balance, verifying claims are presented with corresponding required disclosures and safety information

• Market and channel compliance, ensuring content is compliant against SOPs, channel rules, and local market requirements

• Claim substantiation, automatically validating statements against approved claims, references, and clinical data

• Editorial and brand guidelines, catching grammar, punctuation, trademarks, and branding inconsistencies. 

Plus, our technology makes collaboration effortless, as every stakeholder, including MLR, marketing, and agency partners, can work in real-time alongside our AI agents. 

This early detection reduces rework, shortens approval cycles, keeps launches on schedule. Ultimately, it keeps both marketing agencies and their pharma clients happy. 

To learn more about how Revisto is partnering with agencies to reduce the profitability risks that have plagued pharma client work, contact us today.