COVID-19 BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING PULSE – JANUARY 2022
Customer Colleagues,
At Syneos Health, our priorities for 2022 remain focused on protecting the health and safety of our employees given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and rise in the delta and omicron variants. We are committed to ensuring our teams are vaccinated, partnering with our customers, sponsors and investigators to support the continuity of delivering important studies and life-saving medicines to patients.
VACCINATIONS AND THE IMPACT OF OMICRON
Over the past year, Syneos Health has navigated this devastating pandemic with an ongoing commitment to protect our employees, customers, patients and communities. In early September and prior to the U.S. federal mandate, Syneos Health rolled out a U.S. vaccination policy requiring Syneos Health employees in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 when entering a Syneos Health location (including offices, labs or clinics), attending a Syneos Health event (on or off-site), or meeting face-to-face with customers, colleagues, patients, clinical trial investigators and healthcare practitioners.
Syneos Health is committed to providing vaccinated workers for U.S. investigator sites/clients who have full vaccination requirements and will work with clients to provide workers who meet the vaccination or other approved COVID-19-safety measures (such as negative PCR tests) as needed.
For vaccination requirements outside the U.S., we comply with local legislation and client requirements for providing vaccinated workers or acceptable COVID-19-safe alternatives in the applicable jurisdiction.
CUSTOMER SERVICE, BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND VIRTUAL WORK
Syneos Health continues to make every effort to minimize the impact of the pandemic on the work we conduct for our customers, patients, clinical trial investigators and healthcare practitioners.
- Working Virtually
We have in place, and continue to deploy, robust technologies to efficiently and effectively provide virtual service.
Syneos Health has developed remote business-specific guidelines and tools to work in a fully adaptive style and is intensely focused on ensuring clinical trials proceed, and that site staff and patients are safe and in compliance with governmental policies.
We have also provided guidance for risk-based and remote/central monitoring in high-impact/restricted regions, and we have the ability to implement our remote monitoring strategy on a global scale as needed.
- Field Sales Teams and CRAs
Our Deployment Solutions field teams and employees who conduct medical facility and clinic visits are following customer and government protocols. Our employees who work and collaborate at customer sites have also been advised to consult on office protocols and remote business practices they need to follow.
Across our entire business, from our Clinical to Commercial operations, our teams are fully prepared to conduct all business-related engagements virtually while still supporting the important goal of delivering life-saving medicines.
- Business Travel
Given evolving travel restrictions, Syneos Health continues to follow all governmental restrictions to make prudent decisions on how to optimize virtual connections. Our technology-empowered teams are continuing to meet customer needs and business challenges, fully recognizing unprecedented challenges and facilitating new ways of working and collaborating.
SYNEOS HEALTH OFFICE REACTIVATIONS
Syneos Health continues to evaluate local trends, regulations and requirements regarding office reactivation. While many of our offices are open and available for employees to utilize as needed, our approach to reactivation remains voluntary and flexible. Throughout the pandemic, the health and well-being of our employees and others, and meeting our customers’ demands, have guided our decisions. Our teams have adapted well to working in a hybrid and virtual style, delivering for clients to help bring life-saving medicines to patients.
BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING SUMMARY
Our Business Continuity Planning Transition Management Office (TMO), in alignment with FDA, CDC, WHO and other local and international health authority guidance, includes multiple workstreams. These workstreams continue to maintain their focus on the below priorities and keep customers aware of our learnings and efforts.
- Regulatory Guidance: Aggregating and synthesizing EMA and FDA guidance, and updating regulations and restrictions in order to provide direction to our employees and customers on when – or when not – to pivot and/or reactivate.
- Change Management: Working internally and with customers on change management activities to ensure preparedness as dynamics shift.
- Field Team Connections: Compiling best practices for remote activities and HCP preferences, and benchmarking remote versus in-person detailing metrics.
- Sponsor Connections: Working collaboratively with sponsors to press forward with studies underway while initiating new trials.
- Continued Preparedness Planning: Tracking evolving trends in COVID-19 cases and emerging variants, as well as vaccination rollout progress, to develop scenario plans and share best-practice learnings.
REAL-TIME RESOURCES
We’re regularly updating our COVID-19 Resource Center with capabilities and perspectives to navigate, deliver and learn together. Please visit our Resource Center to learn more.
Thank you for your partnership.
