Updated January 2021

The Q² Solutions leadership team is continuously monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak and assessing its impact on our staff and our operations. Safety is our first priority, and we are dedicated to keeping our staff safe while providing the necessary services for the patients, investigators, and sponsors who depend on us. This is an update on how we are managing this crisis and helping the healthcare industry respond to its many challenges.

Our commitment to customers

We are committed to working closely with our customers in this critical time. Our remote-enabled global Project Services team is fully functional as part of our business continuity efforts. We are communicating project updates on evolving regulatory and logistical developments and subsequent mitigation strategies. We strive to be nimble and adaptable to do our best to assure client studies remain on track.

Our larger goal is to help minimize disruption to clinical trials. As supply chains are disrupted, clinics and hospitals become inaccessible, or patients face difficulty traveling to sites, we are doing everything in our power to assure our clinical trial laboratory services are not interrupted. Since the nature and scope of this pandemic are rapidly changing, we are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust our response as appropriate in order to assure client studies remain on track. It’s a challenging time, but we will stay true to our mission of treating each sample as if a life depends on it and helping our customers and investigators continue to provide vital therapeutic treatment to patients throughout this crisis.

Our approach to operations

In order to mitigate the possible impact on our staff and business operations, we have created a carefully coordinated approach that includes proactive steps to minimize any disruptions. We continue to operate normally, according to standard testing schedules and turn-around-times. We are keeping track of developments daily, and management is appropriately monitoring and responding to any changing situations. As the early stages of this virus outbreak emerged across each region in which we operate, we instructed all staff who do not need to be physically located at a facility to perform their duties to work from home. For those employees that must perform their duties on site, further safety guidance has been provided at the site level to comply with varying global and local regulatory requirements or recommendations. This includes the creation of alternating shift schedules in laboratories to minimize overlap of onsite essential staff where possible. We also implemented enhanced janitorial practices for laboratory and facility work spaces and extensive precautionary sanitary measures including temperature monitoring protocols and additional guidance for personal protective equipment for staff working in our facilities. To date, this transition has been smooth and our facilities remain fully operational.

Our planning and governance

Our leaders and employees are demonstrating an unprecedented level of commitment and collaboration around the world. We have been utilizing the knowledge gained from our facilities in Asia, which implemented a proactive business continuity plan in December 2019. We created a Q² Solutions COVID-19 global task force team that includes business unit and regional level teams, as well as Medical & Scientific, IT, HR, EHS, Finance, Kitting, Logistics, Sourcing and Procurement. We conduct regular meetings to review our COVID-19 response plans and the status of implementation of all appropriate actions. Additionally, we have developed regional-level approaches that address government recommendations and orders, and have established a communication framework for company-wide and client communications. We implemented strict adherence to travel advice and restrictions in countries where we have operations, and we have prohibited both international travel and any non-essential domestic travel. Our enterprise-wide approach to travel is being reviewed and updated frequently as events evolve.

Our participation in the fight against COVID-19

We have joined the global response to the crisis by partnering with multiple customers to expedite study launch for potential COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. We have also partnered with the University of Texas Medical Branch to develop an assay to help determine the effectiveness of vaccine candidates in protecting a person from COVID-19, and we are collaborating with government and private healthcare companies in using our resources to support community testing efforts. Please review our capabilities and solutions for COVID-19 clinical trials.

The COVID-19 outbreak is extraordinary in terms of scale, speed, and uncertainty. Even with the recent turmoil globally, we are fortunate to be a member of the industry that is providing therapeutic solutions to the pandemic, as well as vaccine prevention to the potential recurrence of the virus in the future. In these most unusual circumstances, everyone at Q² Solutions is renewing our company’s commitment to be a collaborative partner to you, utilizing our talents and resources to serve the greater cause we all work for, to the benefit of the health and well-being of patients everywhere. We will continue to help you accomplish your objectives during and after this global health crisis. We commit to continuously communicating key updates in the weeks ahead as this situation evolves. Please do not hesitate to reach out to any one of us for any reason during this time.

Thank you for your ongoing collaboration and partnership. We wish you the best of health, and we look forward to meeting and engaging with you and your teams soon.

— Brian O’Dwyer, Chief Executive Officer, Q² Solutions

Additional resources:

• Our Laboratory Solutions to Support Global COVID-19 Clinical Trials
• IQVIA COVID-19 resource page