Member Article

Manchester’s Havas Lynx Group invests £500K into launch of clinical trial recruitment agency

A leading Manchester-based global healthcare communications specialist is investing £500K into the launch of a new clinical trial recruitment agency.

Havas Lynx Group, which employs 350 people at offices in Princess Street and Kings Cross in London, has created Havas Lynx Faze to address the growing trial patient recruitment challenge, whereby 80 percent of studies fail to recruit on time.

The agency will provide a new solution focused on helping clients design a better patient trial experience and ensuring that patients aren’t delayed from getting the medicines they need.

Faze aims to give clients a choice that not only supports the patients every step of the way but also seamlessly uses data technology and media to reduce the time and cost of finding patients.

Its experienced team will be led by sector expert Mark Evans, who spent the last six years on the management team at Publicis Health agency Langland.

As the agency’s innovation director, he set up a dedicated clinical trial media team and, most recently, led investments in patient recruitment focused on digital products and services.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to join the Havas Lynx family,” said Mark Evans, Managing Director at Havas Lynx Faze.

“They have always had a strong heritage in health and wellness communications and technology, and with its recent Cannes Lions Healthcare Agency of the Year win, it felt like the perfect time to join.”

Mark continued: “The plan for Faze is to change the way our sector communicates with trial patients. Traditionally it has been driven by the needs of sites and has missed the fact that patients are not only the main participant, they now also have more studies then ever competing for their attention.

“We want to work with clients to put the patient at the centre of the trial experience and to design recruitment and retention solutions that provide support every step of the way.”

At Langland, Evans was involved with many industry firsts, including the award-winning AIIR game, thought to be the first example of using gaming - integrated into ePRO - to motivate young clinical study participants.

He was also involved in recruiting patients through Facebook in one of the first ever fully remote clinical studies, VERKKO, in collaboration with eClinicalHealth and Sanofi.

“Faze is aiming to combine creativity and technology to create patient-focused solutions in a market dominated by off-the-shelf solutions that aren’t getting the results clients and patients need,” said David Hunt, CEO of Havas Lynx Group.

“We’re investing £500K into setting up a team that will really drive change for patients looking for clinical studies, and we are delighted to welcome Mark to the Havas family.”

Faze will initially be based across Havas Village’s Kings Cross offices, with creative and production run out of its Manchester head office. International growth is part of ambitious plans for the future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .