Building High-Impact Field Medical Teams: Insights from Vicky Jones of Annexon Biosciences

Field Medical is under growing pressure to prove its value in the data and insights it generates, not just in the scientific conversations that produce them. This conversation puts that challenge front and center.

Scott Thompson, CEO of Acceleration Point, sits down with Vicky Jones (Global Head of Field Medical at Annexon Biosciences) to unpack what it takes to build and lead a high-performing MSL team. Jones brings senior Medical Affairs experience from Amgen, UCB, Eli Lilly, and Regeneron, along with an unconventional starting point: she began in veterinary medicine before finding her way into Field Medical leadership. The conversation covers team structure, hiring and onboarding, insight generation, the boundary between Medical and Commercial, and what it takes to build a successor. If you're responsible for a field medical function, or building one, this is the episode to bookmark.

Key Takeaways:

• Insight generation is Field Medical's core currency. Jones treats insight capture as a discipline, not a byproduct of HCP conversations, and field medical continues to draw the single largest share of medical affairs budget allocation industrywide, at 27% (ZS, 2025 Medical Affairs Outlook Report), which raises the stakes for showing that value clearly.
• Team structure follows a fixed triangle. Jones frames it as scope, capacity, and resources: tell her two of the three and she can work out the third, whether the constraint is a small biotech's fixed headcount or a large company's established team.
• There's no single "ideal" MSL profile. Jones deliberately builds teams with mixed clinical backgrounds (MD, PhD, DVM), since each discipline brings a different problem-solving lens to the same scientific issue.
• Hiring is about behavior under pressure, not a 30-minute pitch. Jones spends a full day with candidates across live and virtual settings and asks situational questions, including an unconventional one about a candidate's worst travel story, to see how they handle adversity.
• True competency takes years, not months. A 30/60/90-day plan gets a new MSL oriented, but Jones estimates six to nine months before someone is comfortable across a full territory, and two to three years before they're fully fluent in a new therapeutic area.
• Field Medical has to stay visibly independent from Commercial. Jones is candid that Field Medical can understand commercial priorities and offer compliant, high-level support, but "we are not the long arm of sales," and can never be seen as commercially motivated.

FAQ

What does a Field Medical team need to prove its value to the organization?
Jones says the differentiator is treating insight generation as a discipline: capturing what physicians and the market are signaling, packaging it clearly, and getting it back into the organization in a form that shows measurable movement over time.

How should an MSL team's structure change across the product life cycle?
Pre-market work centers on mechanism-of-action education and trial support. Launch shifts to daily or weekly insight turnaround and support for a growing commercial team. A mature product moves the focus back to disease-state education and staying relevant to the same experts long-term.

What should Field Medical's relationship with Commercial look like?
Jones describes it as aware but independent: Field Medical can understand commercial priorities and offer high-level, compliant coaching, but it can never take on tactics aimed at fixing a prescriber's behavior or be seen as commercially motivated.

How long does it take a new MSL to become fully effective?
Jones estimates six to nine months before an MSL is comfortable across a full territory, and two to three years before they can go "toe to toe" with peers in a new therapeutic area, even for experienced hires.

What traits does Vicky Jones look for when hiring MSLs?
She names adaptability, resourcefulness, resilience, and presence, and intentionally builds teams with mixed clinical backgrounds rather than one "ideal" MSL profile, because different disciplines bring different problem-solving lenses to the same issue.

About Our Guest

Vicky Jones, DVM is Global Head of Field Medical at Annexon Biosciences. She brings decades of Medical Affairs leadership experience across Amgen, UCB, Eli Lilly, and Regeneron, with deep expertise in structuring field medical teams, driving insight-led engagement, and developing MSL talent.

Connect with Vicky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicky-jones-dvm-36707119/

Curious how this applies to your organization? Let's talk.

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