Ask fifty clinical research professionals how they entered the field in the first place, and you’re likely to get fifty different answers.
Now, here’s number fifty-one: over thirty years ago Jennifer Byrne arrived on day one of her new job out of college thinking she was walking into a pharma sales rep position. “I wore a business suit because that’s how pharmaceutical sales reps are supposed to show up,” she recalls today, laughing. “I had a briefcase that my family had just given to me.”
Derailed a bit at first to discover she’d in fact been hired as a clinical researcher, Byrne realized quickly. “I had found my life’s work.” Or, perhaps more accurately, it found her. And over three decades on, she’s CEO of Javara, a founding member of the Association for Multisite Research Corporations (AMRC) and a leading voice in clinical trial innovation.
Almost instantly, Byrne found herself embracing clinical research and all it entails. “I loved the idea of being responsible for data collection from patients” and being on the “front line” working with patients, she recalls.
She even loves what she half-jokingly calls the “tediousness” of day-to-day clinical trial operations. She takes seriously the “responsibility of ensuring that [patient medical history] documentation is conveyed accurately,” Byrne adds.
As a clinical trial practitioner, Byrne has been consistently driven by a philosophy of putting people first. Patients in clinical trials have “fears and concerns, they have hopes and dreams, and sometimes it’s as simple as being a listening ear,” she says.
Of course, care goes beyond listening, and Byrne is a leading advocate of the clinical research as a care option (CRAACO) movement. And she’s never lost sight of the basic humanity of those patients. “Yes, they are clinical trial participants, but we are also dealing with people who have unmet medical needs and concerns,” Byrne notes. Contributing to improving their health and well-being “has been, ultimately, what’s absolutely the most gratifying,” she adds.
In a career full of achievement and positively impacting patients, Byrne has been recognized as a PM360 ELITE, CenterWatch Top 20 Innovator, PharmaVOICE Woman of Influence, two-time TBJ Power Player and TBJ Outstanding Woman in Business, among others.
She’s also the founder of Greater Gift, a non-profit founded to increase awareness of clinical research, to build trust through the celebration and expression of gratitude for everyone involved in the process, and to pay forward the gift of health to children in need.
Currently, she serves as board founder of both Javara and Greater Gift; board member of AMRC, advisory chair for the master’s in clinical research management with Wake Forest University; and additional advisory roles with Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, FCA Health Innovations Fund, and the North Carolina Biotech of the Piedmont Triad. She is also a member of the Board of Governors for the Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine and a member of the Board of Directors for Salem College.
Byrne is also enthusiastic about joining AMRC as a founding member in 2024. She believes firmly that the clinical trial industry will benefit from the kind of collaboration AMRC members will bring to the table. “All of these organizations, we are united in delivering a more reproducible, predictable clinical trial outcome experience in terms of delivering a fully enrolled patient cohort and a completed data set back to the sponsoring company,” Byrne says.
Byrne also believes AMRC can elevate and share best practices from a patient safety standpoint. “At the end of the day, we have to be a trusted, scalable partner in terms of protecting the reputation of physicians and their medical license, and the brand and trust in clinical trials to the broader public” she adds.
AMRC and its member organizations “have an opportunity to really be able to have a collective voice [to advance clinical trials] to the benefit of patients,” Byrne notes. “I think we are in an era where, from the health system standpoint, we have a responsibility to the greater public around education and empowerment,” Byrne says.
