Generative AI in Medical Affairs: Real Use Cases from Merck, Pfizer & Astellas

Following a standing-room-only session at the 2025 MAPS Annual Meeting, Scott Thompson sits down with three industry leaders who are shaping how generative AI is being applied inside Medical Affairs today, not in theory, but in practice.

Wendy Fraser (Merck), Rishi Ohri (Astellas Pharma), and Annamaria Crisan (Pfizer) share real-world examples, critical lessons, and hard-won truths from piloting generative AI, technology capable of producing text, summaries, and content rather than simply analyzing existing data, across Field Medical teams, Medical Information, HEOR, and Omnichannel. They discuss personal productivity, process improvement, clinical risk, compliance pitfalls, and how to build trust, both with the technology itself and with the teams adopting it. If you're exploring how to scale Gen AI within a regulated environment, this is your roadmap.

Key Takeaways:

• Start with Low-Risk, High-Impact Use Cases. Early wins build organizational confidence and create the foundation for broader adoption.
• Human-in-the-Loop Is Essential for Quality and Trust: AI outputs in regulated environments require consistent human review to maintain scientific integrity. Industry-wide, internal capability gaps remain the top barrier to this kind of adoption; a 2024 MAPS/BCG survey of Medical Affairs leaders found 88% cite a lack of internal AI capabilities as a barrier to broader use (MAPS Benchmark Report).
• Prompt Engineering Is a Leadership Priority. How you ask the question shapes the answer, and Medical Affairs leaders need to develop this skill intentionally.
• Compliance Buy-In Starts with Demonstrating Quality. Showing legal and compliance teams real outputs builds the trust needed to move forward.
• Modular, Fit-for-Purpose AI Beats One-Size-Fits-All. The most effective implementations are scoped to specific workflows, not deployed as blanket solutions.

About Our Guests

Wendy Fraser is Executive Director, Field Medical Center of Excellence and Global Scientific Training at Merck. She leads Merck's global Field Medical Excellence and scientific training initiatives, and returns to OnPoint after Episode 11's conversation on scaling Medical Excellence.

Connect with Wendy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-fraser-86316710

Rishi Ohri is Head of Global Medical Affairs Digital Excellence at Astellas Pharma. He has spent over 16 years at Astellas, the last decade focused on Medical Affairs, working to equip the function with new capabilities that optimize scientific exchange.

Connect with Rishi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishiohri

Annamaria Crisan is a Medical Affairs leader at Pfizer, where her work touches the Omnichannel and scientific engagement functions discussed in this episode. (Her exact title could not be confirmed from the page or a reliable public source; recommend confirming before publishing. See Compliance Note below.)

Connect with Annamaria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annamaria-crisan-b0018a17

FAQ

What is generative AI, and how is Medical Affairs using it?
Generative AI (GenAI) refers to AI systems that produce new text, summaries, or content rather than only analyzing existing data. Medical Affairs teams are piloting it for tasks like drafting medical information responses, supporting insight generation, and accelerating content creation, always with human review built in.

What are the biggest barriers to adopting Gen AI in Medical Affairs?
A 2024 MAPS/Boston Consulting Group survey of Medical Affairs leaders found that 88% see a lack of internal AI capabilities as a barrier to adoption, alongside regulatory and legal constraints on data use. That gap in internal skills, more than the technology itself, is what slows most organizations down.

Why does human review matter so much for AI in a regulated environment?
Outputs generated by AI still need a qualified person checking them for scientific accuracy before they reach an HCP or patient-facing channel. In Medical Affairs, that human-in-the-loop step is what keeps a productivity tool from becoming a compliance risk.

How should a Medical Affairs team start piloting Gen AI?
The guests recommend starting with low-risk, high-impact use cases, tasks where an error is easy to catch and correct, rather than deploying broadly on day one. Early, visible wins build the internal trust needed to expand later.

About OnPoint: The Medical Excellence Podcast

OnPoint: The Medical Excellence Podcast delivers insightful conversations on the most pressing issues facing top Medical Affairs professionals. Listen to stay ahead of industry trends and be inspired by leaders shaping the future of Medical Affairs.

Find more episodes on our OnPoint YouTube channel.

Curious how this applies to your organization? Let's talk: https://www.accelerationpoint.com/contact/