Building Influence in Medical Affairs
With Dr Mussa Arvani, MD, MBA
Course Details
THE CONTENT
Medical Affairs professionals are expected to shape decisions they do not always own. Influencing those decisions is at the core of the job, yet it is almost never the thing anyone is trained in.
What holds influence back is rarely scientific expertise. Medical Affairs brings sound judgement about what the data means. Whether that judgement changes anything depends on whether people trust it, see how it applies to their decision, and hear it before the decision is made. None of that is luck.
You will learn how credibility is actually built, and why reputation comes from repeated performance rather than from anything you say about yourself. You will learn how to turn a complex evidence set into something a specific stakeholder can act on. And you will learn how to shape decisions in a matrix where power and incentives are distributed, without being written off as the scientific naysayer.
The day builds towards the Launch Battle Board, a high-pressure simulation in which teams must agree a recommendation on a launch where the data are positive but incomplete.
If you want your scientific expertise to carry the weight it deserves inside your organisation, this course will show you how!
THE EXPERT
Dr Mussa Arvani, MD, MBA, is a physician and senior Medical Affairs leader with more than 15 years of international experience across Charité, Novartis, Shire, Sanofi and Roche. He is the founder of MAestro Medical Solutions, a boutique consultancy working with pharmaceutical and academic organisations on Medical Affairs strategy and capability building.
Mussa has held every role this course is built around. He started as an MSL in ophthalmology at Novartis, moved through Medical Advisor and Senior MSL positions at Alimera Sciences and Shire, led the MSL organisation for General Medicines across Germany, Switzerland and Austria at Sanofi, and most recently headed the medical group for Immunology, Infectious Diseases and Ophthalmology at Roche, where he was responsible for evidence generation and medical strategy across four disease areas and sat on the cross-functional Evidence Generation Committee.
That progression, from field scientist to cross-functional leader, is the journey this course teaches.
Mussa serves on the Leadership & Management Competency Team of the Medical Affairs Professional Society, lectures in healthcare management at IU International University of Applied Sciences, holds a Professorship at CBS University of Applied Sciences and writes on the changing Medical Affairs mandate.
THE AUDIENCE & INTERACTIVE LEARNING FORMAT
This course is designed for Medical Affairs professionals who are expected to influence decisions beyond their own remit, including:
MSLs and Senior MSLs
Medical Advisors and Medical Managers
Field Medical professionals
Emerging Medical Affairs leaders
It is also relevant for pharma professionals with cross-functional experience looking to expand their expertise in Medical Affairs.
Through expert-led teaching, individual diagnostics and interactive group exercises, you work on your own professional situation throughout, building towards a full cross-functional simulation.
How to diagnose whether your current professional reputation is supporting or limiting your influence, using a structured map of your credibility across three stakeholder groups.
How internal and external reputation are built differently, and why lasting authority depends on the two reinforcing each other.
How to translate a complex evidence set into decision-relevant messages for HCPs, cross-functional teams and senior leadership, without diluting scientific integrity.
How to communicate uncertainty with calibrated confidence, so that incomplete evidence still supports a clear decision.
How to shape priorities and secure alignment in a matrix where you hold no formal authority, and how to challenge constructively without losing collaboration.
| Welcome & Introductions (~30 min) |
|
| The Influence Gap: Why Expertise Alone Does Not Shape Decisions (~45 min) |
|
| Reputation Without Self-Promotion: How Credibility Is Actually Built (~1 h) |
|
| The Translation Problem: When Sound Evidence Fails to Land (~1 h 15 min) |
|
| Lunch Break |
| Influence Without Authority: Shaping Decisions You Do Not Own (~1 h) |
|
| Simulation Workshop: The Launch Battle Board (~1 h 30 min) |
Participants work in small teams, each member given a different stakeholder lens and mandate so that the competing incentives of a real launch decision are present in the room. Working under time, budget and evidence pressure, each team must reach an aligned recommendation in three parts, each distinguishing evidence, interpretation and assumption:
Teams present their negotiated recommendation and a concise executive rationale in plenary. The expert assesses each team against the success criteria of scientific integrity, patient relevance, strategic clarity, cross-functional alignment, credible handling of uncertainty and influence without formal authority. |
| Debrief, Personal Commitment & Close (~30 min) |
|
UPCOMING DATES & FORMATS - FEES
TIMING & LOCATION
Live Online: Zoom sessions between 9 AM and 5 PM CET (Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris time).
All practical details will be shared upon registration. For any questions, please contact Margherita Mutto or call +32 472 03 11 38 .
GROUP DISCOUNTS
Team discounts can be offered to 2 or more delegates from the same company.
Email Annelies Swaan for more details.
HOW TO REGISTER
Click the green “Register” button on your preferred course session.
The registration wizard will guide you through the process.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
Credit Card: You’ll receive a secure payment link with your invoice (no immediate payment required).
Bank Transfer: Details provided with your invoice.
For help with registration, email Annelies Swaan or contact her by phone at +32 486 98 52 49.
INCLUDED IN THE REGISTRATION FEE
Access to a highly interactive, small-group online course (max 20 participants)
Course materials in both digital and hard copy format
Certificate of attendance signed by the experts and CELforPharma
VAT INFORMATION
Prices exclude VAT. VAT application depends on course format and your location:
Face-to-Face in Belgium: 21% Belgian VAT applies
Live online courses: The applicable VAT depends on your invoicing address. Contact your local VAT office for refund procedures where applicable.
TRANSFER & CANCELLATION POLICY
Flexible Transfer
If a registrant is unable to attend the scheduled course, they can avoid any cancellation charges by providing a suitable replacement participant.
Alternatively, the registrant may transfer once, on a 'space-available' basis and at no extra cost, to another course of the same value held within one year of the original course date, provided this is done at least three weeks prior to the event.
Registration Cancellation
Less than 14 days prior to the course date: The registrant is liable to pay the full invoiced registration fee.
Between 15 and 30 days prior to the course date: The registrant is liable to pay 50% of the invoiced registration fee.
More than 30 days prior to the course date: The registrant is liable to pay a cancellation fee of € 450 per registrant.
If a registrant postpones their participation to a future course and subsequently cancels again, no refund will be issued for the registration fees.
People attending this course are typically also interested in the below courses.
Need help to find the right course? Email Inge Cornelis or call +32 473 65 15 77.
Course Details
Dates & Locations
Upcoming Session
2 March 2027, Live online
Early bird € 1 570
(until 29/01/2027)
(Full fee € 1 770)
Prices are excl. VAT
THE CONTENT
Medical Affairs professionals are expected to shape decisions they do not always own. Influencing those decisions is at the core of the job, yet it is almost never the thing anyone is trained in.
What holds influence back is rarely scientific expertise. Medical Affairs brings sound judgement about what the data means. Whether that judgement changes anything depends on whether people trust it, see how it applies to their decision, and hear it before the decision is made. None of that is luck.
You will learn how credibility is actually built, and why reputation comes from repeated performance rather than from anything you say about yourself. You will learn how to turn a complex evidence set into something a specific stakeholder can act on. And you will learn how to shape decisions in a matrix where power and incentives are distributed, without being written off as the scientific naysayer.
The day builds towards the Launch Battle Board, a high-pressure simulation in which teams must agree a recommendation on a launch where the data are positive but incomplete.
If you want your scientific expertise to carry the weight it deserves inside your organisation, this course will show you how!
THE EXPERT
Dr Mussa Arvani, MD, MBA, is a physician and senior Medical Affairs leader with more than 15 years of international experience across Charité, Novartis, Shire, Sanofi and Roche. He is the founder of MAestro Medical Solutions, a boutique consultancy working with pharmaceutical and academic organisations on Medical Affairs strategy and capability building.
Mussa has held every role this course is built around. He started as an MSL in ophthalmology at Novartis, moved through Medical Advisor and Senior MSL positions at Alimera Sciences and Shire, led the MSL organisation for General Medicines across Germany, Switzerland and Austria at Sanofi, and most recently headed the medical group for Immunology, Infectious Diseases and Ophthalmology at Roche, where he was responsible for evidence generation and medical strategy across four disease areas and sat on the cross-functional Evidence Generation Committee.
That progression, from field scientist to cross-functional leader, is the journey this course teaches.
Mussa serves on the Leadership & Management Competency Team of the Medical Affairs Professional Society, lectures in healthcare management at IU International University of Applied Sciences, holds a Professorship at CBS University of Applied Sciences and writes on the changing Medical Affairs mandate.
THE AUDIENCE & INTERACTIVE LEARNING FORMAT
This course is designed for Medical Affairs professionals who are expected to influence decisions beyond their own remit, including:
MSLs and Senior MSLs
Medical Advisors and Medical Managers
Field Medical professionals
Emerging Medical Affairs leaders
It is also relevant for pharma professionals with cross-functional experience looking to expand their expertise in Medical Affairs.
Through expert-led teaching, individual diagnostics and interactive group exercises, you work on your own professional situation throughout, building towards a full cross-functional simulation.
How to diagnose whether your current professional reputation is supporting or limiting your influence, using a structured map of your credibility across three stakeholder groups.
How internal and external reputation are built differently, and why lasting authority depends on the two reinforcing each other.
How to translate a complex evidence set into decision-relevant messages for HCPs, cross-functional teams and senior leadership, without diluting scientific integrity.
How to communicate uncertainty with calibrated confidence, so that incomplete evidence still supports a clear decision.
How to shape priorities and secure alignment in a matrix where you hold no formal authority, and how to challenge constructively without losing collaboration.
| Welcome & Introductions (~30 min) |
|
| The Influence Gap: Why Expertise Alone Does Not Shape Decisions (~45 min) |
|
| Reputation Without Self-Promotion: How Credibility Is Actually Built (~1 h) |
|
| The Translation Problem: When Sound Evidence Fails to Land (~1 h 15 min) |
|
| Lunch Break |
| Influence Without Authority: Shaping Decisions You Do Not Own (~1 h) |
|
| Simulation Workshop: The Launch Battle Board (~1 h 30 min) |
Participants work in small teams, each member given a different stakeholder lens and mandate so that the competing incentives of a real launch decision are present in the room. Working under time, budget and evidence pressure, each team must reach an aligned recommendation in three parts, each distinguishing evidence, interpretation and assumption:
Teams present their negotiated recommendation and a concise executive rationale in plenary. The expert assesses each team against the success criteria of scientific integrity, patient relevance, strategic clarity, cross-functional alignment, credible handling of uncertainty and influence without formal authority. |
| Debrief, Personal Commitment & Close (~30 min) |
|
UPCOMING DATES & FORMATS - FEES
TIMING & LOCATION
Live Online: Zoom sessions between 9 AM and 5 PM CET (Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris time).
All practical details will be shared upon registration. For any questions, please contact Margherita Mutto or call +32 472 03 11 38 .
GROUP DISCOUNTS
Team discounts can be offered to 2 or more delegates from the same company.
Email Annelies Swaan for more details.
HOW TO REGISTER
Click the green “Register” button on your preferred course session.
The registration wizard will guide you through the process.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
Credit Card: You’ll receive a secure payment link with your invoice (no immediate payment required).
Bank Transfer: Details provided with your invoice.
For help with registration, email Annelies Swaan or contact her by phone at +32 486 98 52 49.
INCLUDED IN THE REGISTRATION FEE
Access to a highly interactive, small-group online course (max 20 participants)
Course materials in both digital and hard copy format
Certificate of attendance signed by the experts and CELforPharma
VAT INFORMATION
Prices exclude VAT. VAT application depends on course format and your location:
Face-to-Face in Belgium: 21% Belgian VAT applies
Live online courses: The applicable VAT depends on your invoicing address. Contact your local VAT office for refund procedures where applicable.
TRANSFER & CANCELLATION POLICY
Flexible Transfer
If a registrant is unable to attend the scheduled course, they can avoid any cancellation charges by providing a suitable replacement participant.
Alternatively, the registrant may transfer once, on a 'space-available' basis and at no extra cost, to another course of the same value held within one year of the original course date, provided this is done at least three weeks prior to the event.
Registration Cancellation
Less than 14 days prior to the course date: The registrant is liable to pay the full invoiced registration fee.
Between 15 and 30 days prior to the course date: The registrant is liable to pay 50% of the invoiced registration fee.
More than 30 days prior to the course date: The registrant is liable to pay a cancellation fee of € 450 per registrant.
If a registrant postpones their participation to a future course and subsequently cancels again, no refund will be issued for the registration fees.
People attending this course are typically also interested in the below courses.
Need help to find the right course? Email Inge Cornelis or call +32 473 65 15 77.