Manchester and London, England—Nov. 5, 2018— Health and wellness communications agency Havas Lynx, part of the Havas Health & You marketing network, today announced that it has launched a new agency, Havas Lynx Faze. The agency will be dedicated to addressing the growing trial patient recruitment challenge, whereby 80 percent of studies fail to recruit on time.

Faze 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 patient every step of the way but also seamlessly uses data technology and media to reduce the time and cost of finding patients.

Faze’s experienced team will be led by 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.”

Evans continued, “The plan for Faze is to change the way our sector communicates with trial patients. It’s a sector that 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. “We’re investing heavily in 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 at Havas Village’s Kings Cross offices, with creative and production run out of its Manchester head office, and international growth planned for the near future.

For more information about Havas Lynx Faze, visit www.HavasFaze.com.