2020 ANNUAL REPORT

2020 was a year full of historic challenges and discord. A global pandemic, unprecedented government interventions, turbulent elections, and deeply felt social and racial injustice. Many of us faced difficult personal challenges, a full year away from family, friends and colleagues, and sadly, many lives taken too soon.

But there were bright spots as well. Many of our member companies found new ways to succeed. Peers from rival companies came together to stand up for good, joining forces – and resources – to help fight the pandemic and social challenges together. It was a time when organizations and individuals discovered strengths they never knew existed and found new opportunities to excel professionally, and personally.

MAPS was in a unique position as the pandemic took its grip on the world. As a record number of Medical Affairs professionals (700) prepared to arrive in Miami on March 8 for our Global Annual Meeting – just the fourth such meeting in our five-year existence – we were one of the last in-person conferences to take place, finishing on the day the WHO officially declared the pandemic. Uncertainty was prevalent throughout the three-day event, as so little was known about COVID-19 at the time. But one thing was certain, this was an assembly of leaders prepared and eager to do everything in their powers to help their companies fight the pandemic and hopefully bring it to a swift end.

And that is what continues to amaze us all about this great profession of Medical Affairs. The medical and scientific know-how and established external credibility of Medical Affairs are extremely effective forces that can be leveraged to place patient outcomes front and center. And this is important now more than ever.

As many of you know, MAPS was founded on the idea of building a global community for Medical Affairs professionals to come together, enabling companies and professionals to achieve personal and organizational excellence. Those opportunities were powerfully presented to us this year, and we are proud of how the Medical Affairs community and the industry stepped up to these generational challenges.

We are pleased to present to you the 2020 MAPS Annual Report, highlighting the many achievements of the society, our volunteers, and our members. We thank each of you who had a role in MAPS’ success this year, and to those of you who participated in any of our initiatives.