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What Does a Medical Communications Agency Do?

Written by Andrew O'Reilly | Apr 14, 2025 7:19:50 PM

Medical communications agencies play a crucial role in both the medcomms industry and the healthcare sector, yet many people are unfamiliar with what they do, how they operate, and the impact they have. These agencies collaborate with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as healthcare professionals (HCPs), to transform complex medical and scientific information into clear, accurate, and engaging content. By bridging the gap between research and real-world application, they ensure that vital health information reaches the right audiences, such as HCPs, patients, and healthcare organizations, in a way that is both accessible and effective.

What is a medical communications agency?

Medical communications agencies specialize in creating medical content in and for various formats - from a Continuing Medical Education (CME) course or an advisory board to a scientific paper. These agencies have become increasingly popular with biotech and pharma companies who need support in driving healthcare advancements, engaging the medical community, providing learning experiences to HCPs, or driving commercial success for a product. Regardless of the services they offer, a medical communications agency’s primary mission is to connect healthcare professionals or the public to the latest scientific research and developments.

What services does a medical communications agency offer?

While medical communications agencies may offer different services depending on the specialty knowledge they hold, they are likely to offer support in the following areas:

    • Medical content creation: This could include writing and distributing a scientific publication, a clinical study report or a white paper.
    • Medical education and training: Medical education can be done in countless ways, but agencies are likely to offer support through the development of CMEs, needs assessments, patient education services, and symposiums.
    • Marketing and promotional support: Agencies can also support companies in pursuit of commercial success through creating and publishing marketing materials to promote a project, brand, or product after conducting market research and needs assessments.
    • Medical affairs: Medical communications agencies collaborate and network with individuals and organizations in the healthcare industry on a daily basis, so they are well-positioned to enhance engagement across the medical community through consensus initiatives, advisory boards, data collection, conference and event planning support, and more.

Why work with a medical communications agency?

Medical communications agencies are typically sought after by medical education managers who work at pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, looking for support to effectively communicate to a target audience in the medical industry. However, agencies also work directly with healthcare organizations, non-profits, patient advocacy groups, hospitals and healthcare professionals depending on the project. Visit our Case Studies webpage to see some examples of what this work could look like.

Working with a medical communications agency allows companies and busy professionals to alleviate a dense workload by collaborating with an agency that holds specialized medical knowledge, helps companies navigate regulations, ensures the creation of accurate and credible and effectively engages with a target audience. In short, medical communications agencies are there to save medical education managers and companies time and resources while meeting their goals.

Choosing the right medical communications agency

There’s many medical communications agencies out there for someone to consider, but ensure you choose the agency that will best support your needs. Check out our “How to Choose a Medical Communications Agency” blog post to learn what key items you should review before working with an agency.

The team at CTC has been thriving in the medical communications industry for three decades, creating compelling medical content for our partners. If you’re looking for a medical communications agency that can help you shine in front of your customers and colleagues, reach out to us for a FREE quote! We'll get a highly competitive quote back to you within two days.