John Cogan has a degree in chemistry and could easily have become a scientist. However, he was always more fascinated by technology than the laboratory and wanted to explore the space where technology meets science.
‘I’m a scientist with an MBA who’s never worked in a lab!’
With a career that has developed over the same time as enormous advances in technology, John has been in the right place to utilise rapidly maturing technology within all of his roles and maximise its impact in life sciences and particularly pharma R&D.
John Cogan
Finding tech solutions to paper processes
John’s first roles in pharma were in R&D and he quickly become much more interested in the operations side of the business rather than the scientific. He found it hard to accept that companies with 1,000s of products registered across the globe, were still running their processes on paper and was sure there must be some technology that could improve work flow and shorten work cycles. So, throughout the 1990s he investigated technology to enhance efficiency in his companies. However, it was when he moved to Shire Pharmaceuticals Regulatory department in 2001, that he found the perfect role at the perfect time, in which to exploit this potential.
‘The technology had matured dramatically and with the opportunity in a company like Shire, it was the ideal time for me to use my operations and tech experience to help improve the company’s bottom line.’
With the help of the right technology, John streamlined operations and processes to great effect. This included reducing the time taken to produce a clinical study report by three months. His work had a huge impact on the company and its profits. During his nine years at Shire, he moved into PV and broadened his experience in R&D. He helped these areas get their processes in order, utilising new technology properly and effectively, whilst building his business and processing expertise simultaneously.
At the end of 2010, John felt he was ready for a change and decided to start his own consulting business. For several years, he was happy running his own business prior to spending 18 months working with Daiichi Sankyo, but in 2014, he had the opportunity to join Genpact as their Chief Technology Officer.
‘I’m not like normal CTOs as I’m not really a geeky technology guy, I’m very much a business technology guy and I think there’s a key difference between the two.’
The role at Genpact was significant in developing John’s business consulting acumen. At the time, the company did not have much presence in life sciences but they were in the process of buying a pharma services company and John’s expertise in this area was paramount to its success. After three years at Genpact, John was offered the chance to move to Kinapse to develop this further and it was here that he first worked closely with Adam Sherlock (now CEO of Qinecsa). He had known Adam since the 1990s and they had always got on very well, both professionally and personally, so he was delighted to work alongside him.
When Kinapse was acquired by Syneos in January 2020, John took over the R&D Advisory area, which offered consultancy on regulatory, clinical, medical affairs, process and technology, PV and more. With John at the helm, they built the practice up over the next three years and almost doubled it in size.
‘The team we built was a very important part of that growth. They were brilliant and a dream to manage. They called me their ‘Work Dad’ and I was very happy with that name.’
Working in this field during Covid was pretty brutal and in 2022, John decided he needed a change and went back to his life as an independent consultant. He loved the choices he could make on who and what he worked with.
‘My motto became ‘Doing things I like, with people I like’, and I was lucky that I was busy enough that I could be quite choosy. After the tough time during Covid, I’d felt pretty burnt out, so was happy with the change.’
The road to Qinecsa
One of John’s clients in his new consultancy was Adam Sherlock who was then CEO of Rephine. At the same time as working for Adam, John had been watching Qinecsa as it developed from a traditional PV services company to that of an owner of technology assets. This included its Reportum and CVW tools and its new acquisition of Insife and the HALOPV solution. He watched the company with interest and when in 2024, Adam was made Qinecsa’s new CEO and approached John to join him, it seemed like the ideal opportunity.
‘It was just perfect timing. Adam joined Qinecsa just as I felt my batteries were recharged and I was ready for the next challenge. I trust Adam very much and felt there was a great opportunity to work together to integrate the four business units and establish efficient and effective Operations.’
John accepted Adam’s offer and he joined Qinecsa in October 2024 as the Chief Operating Officer. His history in the function and execution of business operations, as well as his technology expertise in enabling those functions, was fundamental in what was needed.
It’s all about context
One of the first things that John impressed upon his technology team in his new role, is to be continually thinking about the client’s operating model and their return on investment (ROI). It was key that the sales teams were not ‘just selling’ technology to the client. They need to understand the context within which the technology will be used and how it can improve efficiency and effectiveness. Only then, when they know the context, can they ‘sell better’.
What excites John about Qinecsa is how all the different teams can come together, to combine their traditional pharmacovigilance services and technology offerings, so it positively impacts their clients’ ROI.
‘That’s where you find the true convergence of business processes and technology, where teams, solutions and service converge.’
In his new role, John is responsible for the delivery of all of Qinecsa’s services and technology across all of its businesses, so directly or indirectly he has about 80% of the company’s 1,000 staff under his leadership. He’s working very hard to improve every area of the business and setting it up for growth.
‘We now truly have the full suite of tools that cover the whole end to end of safety. Not many of our competitors can claim that! We also have the expertise in the delivery of PV operations and because of this our client list is like a who’s who of the pharma industry.’
John and Qinecsa’s joint mission
As a company, Qinecsa has always been, and still is, dedicated to its people and the teams they are part of and John has always felt the same. He wants to use his empathy and listening skills to lead from the top and help create an environment within the company where staff want to come to work and want to do a good job. He feels it is often the environment within the company that prevents staff from doing that and if he can support staff and get his hands dirty whenever necessary, then he will enable them to do their best.
‘You have to listen, say what you mean and mean what you say. The bottom line is, if you can lead people well and with strength, you won’t go far wrong.’
It looks like John and Qinecsa have the perfect synergy for success.
About Qinecsa
Qinecsa is a specialist in comprehensive technology-led pharmacovigilance solutions. A trusted global partner to life science companies, public health organizations, and regulatory sectors, it brings together best-in-class technology and scientific expertise that connect those customers to the right safety solutions. Drawing on its extensive and unique insight into the challenges of pharmacovigilance, Qinecsa has created industry-leading, end-to-end solutions for capturing, managing, and evaluating drug safety data more efficiently and accurately, driving progress in protecting lives.
Established in 2022, Qinecsa , formed from the merger of Qinecsa, Bioclinica DSS, MyMeds&Me, Commonwealth Informatics and Insife. Qinesca is a global business employing 1,300 people and spanning three continents (the US, Europe and Asia), with a direct presence in 14 countries.
