Future Proof Your MLR Review and Approval Process

Mar 31, 2026 | Joe Adams

Drug approvals have risen sharply in the last few years and, accordingly, so has the demand for content to support the marketing of these new medicines. Veeva data shows that biopharma companies, boosted by the emergence of AI, keep investing in content creation, steadily increasing content volume year after year. Medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) teams are trying to keep pace with the increase, often reviewing more content with the same amount of resources.

Regulatory guidance on drug promotion doesn’t tell emerging life sciences companies how to do promotion reviews in a cost- and time-efficient manner. For that, there are best practices and content management platforms. The right review and approval process will set a company up to document every step and to publish all needed materials in a timely, compliant fashion. Companies that have optimized their MLR workflows have seen a 57% reduction in review cycle times and a 55% drop in time spent in review meetings. Here are some key steps to optimize workflows, enhance internal collaboration, and establish a single source of truth.

Setting the foundation for efficient MLR

To establish effective and efficient MLR reviews, begin with governance and process. A best practice here is a framework that has representation from every group involved in your content strategy. Your framework should also define the systems and processes to review and manage the content. Determine who should be at the table and who ultimately owns decisions related to changing to your process.

As your product and messaging evolves and expands to additional markets, it is critical to assess the long-term implications of your operating model. To drive efficiency at scale, look to reuse strategies across markets and teams to support derivative content and personalization. To enable this, consider tiered processes that support your MLR teams in becoming more efficient at scale.

“With Veeva PromoMats, we were able to streamline our MLR review and approval process. Our various stakeholders can now simultaneously review content in a timely manner while making sure it complies with all the applicable codes and regulations.” Global Compliance Specialist

Streamlining the process with fit-for-purpose technologies

Established biopharma and biotech companies commonly turn to technology to accelerate the creation, review, and approval of their content. Emerging companies can benefit from creating a strong content foundation with MLR and digital asset management (DAM) systems.

A dedicated MLR system will move you beyond the cumbersome paper processes of the past and keep reviews flowing even when reviewers are not at the same location: Documents are held in a central repository that everyone can access, including contracted reviewers and your agencies. A modern MLR system should have a built-in library for effectively managing claims and references. This can cut both the administrative burden around maintaining your claims library and your claim management risk across countries, channels, and assets.

“We wanted a system that was suitable for every country but wouldn’t have to be overly customized. Veeva PromoMats gives us the global collaboration and automated audit trails we need, while gaining the flexibility to adapt to edge cases as they arise.” Agnès Keltie, Compliance Manager, Global Medical Affairs, Norgine

A strong MLR system should support and automate controlled compliant activities that increase the speed of review, submissions to authorities where required, and content speed to market. Finally, look for an MLR system with flexible review workflows so that you can meet organizational needs as you scale.

Scaling content development with DAM

DAM systems are foundational to a scalable content development and review process. They organize all the text and graphic elements related to your content and provide an approved library for your agency partners to access and build new content rapidly. DAM systems hold metadata and rights information for every content element. If an asset is later reused in another channel or content format — a best practice to maximize your content spend — you’ll have full visibility into previous MLR approvals, so you’ll know when it was last vetted.

MLR reviews have always been a critical element of marketing operations at life sciences companies. That will not change, but the days of doing them manually or on paper, email, or spreadsheets are over. Embracing a purpose-built MLR system now can enable you to incorporate AI into the process, make it more efficient, and prime it to scale as your company’s needs grow.

Learn more about making your company’s compliant medical, legal, and regulatory reviews faster.