Santiago Zas, Project Director at Linical, has been with the company from the beginning and seen some of the amazing advancements that have been made in clinical research during that time. We caught with him for a Q&A to learn more..
Q: Looking back over 30 years, what do you love most about working at Linical and what makes Linical different?
"What I love most is the company trust in employees at all levels; the flexibility as a company that allows Linical to adapt to clients’ needs; our supportive Senior Management Team and of course all of my colleagues, especially in the Madrid office that I meet regularly face to face. Above all else, Linical is a Japanese company with inspiring core values that our employees feel and live every day."
"As a Project Director, my role is to effectively deliver projects by managing scope, resources, risks, stakeholders, and communication, driving success from initiation to closure, this is something that has not changed. What has changed completely is the way of achieving our goals:
From when I first joined Linical, we have embraced technology. We have moved from using fax, couriers and telephone calls to email, electronic signature, instant messaging apps and virtual meetings! We used to receive long documents via fax for all studies; imagine an urgent submission and receiving last minute documents by fax, or the SAE received by fax on Friday evening! Now, electronic systems allow us to have real-time access to clinical trial information: eTMF, eCRF, eFinances, eTraining.
Globalization is not new, but it has increased exponentially. Clinical trial team members can be anywhere in the world; the sun never sets for some studies! Understanding different cultures has become crucial for managing a multi-country clinical trial, especially with the huge regional growth within Asia Pacific in clinical research."
"The biggest change has probably been moving from paper to electronic documentation; today there is almost no paper at all as everything is handled electronically.
Communication has absolutely improved. We moved from landline phone calls and occasional face to face meetings to very frequent virtual meetings. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a big change. The confinement of study patients, hospital staff, sponsors and Linical teams was a situation never experienced before, forcing everyone to rethink the way clinical trials are designed and performed."
"My proudest moment was my first Data Safety Monitoring Board as Project Manager. Also, meeting Linical’s founder Hatano-san and participating at the GMM meeting in Linical headquarters in Osaka was amazing.
Very recently, I am proud of the market approval in China after managing a full program from Spain together with Linical China. The program included pre-clinical stage, PK, phase II, phase III follow-up and regulatory dossier."
"I believe people working in clinical trials have the privilege of participating in the process of bringing to the market new treatments that are safe, effective and improve human health.
This has happened several times during my time here: family, friends and thousands of people around the world benefit from medicines brought to market through clinical development led in part by Linical.
Author:
Santiago Zas
Project Director
Linical