John Matthews joined Syneos Heath (based from the Farnborough office) in August 2019 as Vice President, Global Client Solutions and was charged to Head up then newly formed Implementation Group responsible for ensuring a newly awarded, top 10 pharma partnership was initiated successfully. The role included responsibility for defining partnership process framework and leading, via a matrix structure, all work streams to ensure all the Systems, Processes, Tools and People were defined and in place at the right time to deliver the highest quality clinical services for this key pharma partner.
Claire Riches, Senior Vice President, Global Client Solutions
John brought with him strong leadership skills and ability to work across all the different departments within a large CRO such as Syneos Health. John’s content development and presentation skills enabled the Pharma partner to clearly see the progress of this vital partnership in real time. This partnership had visibility to the CEOs of both companies.
John quickly established a close working relationship with the Pharma Partner’s lead contact and had to liaise weekly with almost 80 functional leads and managers at both Syneos Health and the Pharma partner ensuring all parties were aware of progress, deadlines, actions and risks. To do this, John had to not only have excellent communication skills, but also conflict resolution and diplomacy skills to ensure all risks were raised and resolved in real time.
John’s contract would have been extended but in March 2020 the company decision was to release most contractors due to the emerging Covid-19 pandemic that sent shock waves throughout the whole CRO industry. John left in Jun 2020 as per contract. However, the legacy of the framework established by John has resulted in many large global clinical trials being awarded to Syneos Health by the pharma partner with solid Systems, Processes, Tools and People in place to deliver these trials on time and within budget.
Syneos Health Limited
John Matthews joined TM Functional Service(TMFS) Limited (based remotely from the London office) in June 2021 for nine months as interim Global Head of Clinical Operations and was charged to head up the clinical team to manage a complicated trial in Critical Limb Ischaemia. John also liaised directly with the head of Q.A., to work through a gap analysis on the Systems, Processes, Tools and People. New SOPs and project plans were drafted. John was instrumental in organizing all the documentation required to transition a study from a large CRO to Talentmark.
John brought with him strong leadership and communication skills and the ability to work across the different departments and within all the different layers of management in the Sponsor company. John’s content development and presentation skills enabled the Sponsor partner to clearly see the progress of this study in real time. This role had visibility to the CEOs of both companies.
John quickly established a close working relationship with the Sponsor’s lead contact ensuring all parties were aware of progress, deadlines, actions and risks. To do this, John had to not only have excellent communication skills, but also conflict resolution and diplomacy skills to ensure all risks were raised and resolved in real time.
John’s contract was fulfilled and TMFS would welcome John back if any other suitable vacancy arose. We thank John for all his hard work and efforts delivered with good humour.
Klemens Schuette, Chairman, Talentmark Limited
“I have been working with Akela for the last three years. Akela first managed a trial for us in the UK and Sweden, which was challenging, but ultimately successful. Being based in the West coast of the USA I needed someone I could trust with my study. When we decided to run a second trial in the UK, Akela was the obvious choice of CRO. I particularly like the way they proactively managed the studies, keeping me informed as needed, making clear requests of me and being highly responsive. The Akela team forged excellent working relationships with all of our investigators and collaborated well with third parties too. We were especially happy that Akela CRA was on-site for our FDA inspection last year; her daily updates meant that we knew how the inspection was going in real-time, which reduced our anxiety levels considerably! The inspection produced no findings which is testament to the quality of Akela’s monitoring and management. I would have no hesitation in recommending Akela in the future“.
Dr Jeff Gregory, Chief Medical Officer, MediQuest Therapeutics Inc
“We selected a new site to participate in one of our trials. I was pleased when this site independently hired Akela to help them initiate and manage the study. Knowing that Akela were involved increased my level of comfort from the outset as I knew of their work from WCT. My CRAs and medical monitor have been impressed with the speed of recruitment, quality of the data and Akela’s coordination of the site. Recruitment at this site actually proved better than at the more experienced sites on the study so we awarded a second trial to them. In my opinion Akela’s input made a positive contribution to our trial.“
Geoffrey Dunbar M.D., Vice President, Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs, Targacept Inc.
“I got to know John Matthews in 1997 when he was appointed as the Global Project Manager from Worldwide Clinical Trials for Novartis Pharmaceuticals’ landmark Suicide Prevention Trial (InterSePT), the successful execution of which led to a new indication i.e. “suicide” being created. In this exceedingly complex trial with multiple endpoints, numerous assessment measures and a database consisting of over two million data points, John led a multidisciplinary team of over 100 CRAs, data managers, statisticians, regulatory staff, etc., and successfully locked the database on time.
Based on his past performance, I have the utmost confidence that John will ensure that Akela will produce similar results in the future. I have assigned John the Project Manager responsibilities for a first human administration trial in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. I am sure John will ensure that site selection, monitoring, study documentation maintenance will be performed to the highest standards.
I have no hesitation in recommending Akela for performing Clinical Research oversight activities.“
Ravi Anand, MD. VP Clinical Development ENKAM Pharmaceuticals and Independent Consultant, Basel Switzerland.
“I had the pleasure to work with Akela in my previous position as International Head of the CRO WCT, which was later to become i3 Research. and I grew to place much trust in them. WCT has reformed and I have already asked d John to support us providing a number of operational services, which they delivered in amazing time and quality.
In my opinion John is one of the best senior project managers I have worked with. When WCT were assigned the InterSePT study he was the natural choice to lead the international team of over 100 staff and he did not let me down.
I am sure WCT will need high calibre consultants from time to time in the future and Akela will be one of my first choices“
Angelico Carta, MD. President, Worldwide Clinical Trials (WCT)
“Akela were recommended to me and have recently monitored and managed three phase I/II studies for Vantia Ltd. I found their flexible approach a great asset and our trials were set up and started in rapid time. Akela’s work was of the highest quality and I felt fully informed throughout the trials. Issues that arose at site level were handled professionally and in a timely manner. Their monitoring reports were excellent. The Phase I / Clinical Study Units were encouraged and motivated by Akela and produced excellent results. I recently commissioned an audit of Akela’s SOPs and they passed with flying colours. All in all it was a very successful collaboration and I am more than happy to recommend Akela“.
Dr Hilary McElwaine-Johnn, Chief Medical Officer, Vantia Therapeutics
