Healthcare — Pharmaceuticals & Clinical Research · Patient Recruitment Program · Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Patient Recruitment Program Project Manager Simulation — Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Own patient recruitment for a Vertex Phase II alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency trial: 25 enrollments across 8 global sites in 16 weeks, on a $1.5M budget. Coordinate a CRO, a digital patient-finder vendor, eight site coordinators, and the rare-disease advocacy community whose newsletter and conference are the real recruitment channel — while the sponsor keeps moving the enrollment target you agreed to at charter. Gain hands-on project management experience over 27 days of real decisions, stakeholders, and PMO deliverables — no prior experience required.
The scenario
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is running VX-AAT-201, a Phase II clinical trial of a next-generation corrector for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD, or 'Alpha-1') — a rare inherited disorder in which a misfolded protein leaves patients vulnerable to progressive lung and liver disease. The science is the easy part. The hard part is finding 25 genetically eligible (PiZZ-genotype) participants and getting them enrolled across 8 global sites inside a 16-week window. In a disease where most carriers are undiagnosed or mislabeled as COPD, recruitment is the entire project. You are the Patient Recruitment Lead. You do not run the science, write the protocol, or read the endpoints — that is the medical and biostatistics team. You run the funnel: referrals in, screen-eligible participants out, 25 enrolled by Last Patient In. To do it you coordinate parties that do not report to you and do not fully agree with each other. ICON, the CRO, manages the sites and the monitors. Antidote, a digital patient-finder, runs the social and EHR-based outreach that is supposed to fill the top of the funnel. Eight site coordinators, each with their own backlog and their own underperformance story, do the actual screening. And the Crossbridge Alpha-1 Foundation — a patient-advocacy organization whose founder built it around her own family's diagnosis — controls the registry, the newsletter, and the annual conference that, in a rare disease, out-recruit every paid channel combined. The enrollment target was clear and agreed when you took the role: 25 participants, 8 sites, 16 weeks, $1.5M. It will not stay clear. Your sponsor wants flexibility; your governance wants discipline; the advocacy community wants a say in how its patients are approached. Your job is to hit the number without letting the number quietly change underneath you.
What you'll do as the project manager
- →Enroll 25 PiZZ-genotype AATD participants across the 8 activated sites within the 16-week enrollment window (Last Patient In by Day 27)
- →Stand up the recruitment funnel — Antidote referral generation, CRO pre-screening, site-level consent and screening — with a shared, weekly-updated enrollment forecast
- →Activate an advocacy-channel partnership with the Crossbridge Alpha-1 Foundation (registry outreach, newsletter feature, conference presence) within Vertex's ethical and contractual guardrails
- →Keep per-site enrollment within plan and deliver a turnaround for any site at zero enrollment two weeks past activation
- →Deliver against the $1.5M recruitment budget with no more than 10% variance and manage every change to scope, eligibility, or site list through a formal change request
Project management skills you'll build
The challenges you'll navigate
- •Recruitment is the whole project and the eligible population is tiny — a small miss in any single channel (Antidote, advocacy, or site screening) compounds into an enrollment shortfall with no slack to recover
- •The advocacy community controls the highest-yield channel but does not report to Vertex; the Foundation's terms for partnering may ask for commitments (post-trial access, results return) that Vertex cannot grant without Legal and Medical sign-off
- •Antidote's contracted cost-per-referral assumes a referral-to-enrollment conversion the program has never validated for this genotype — if the model under-delivers, the top of the funnel collapses
- •The 8 sites have uneven track records; at least two have a history of activating fast and then enrolling nobody, and the CRO has no contractual lever stronger than escalation
- •The sponsor chartered a clean 25/8/16 target to get the program approved, but is already signaling she wants the flexibility to add sites and adjust the target as data comes in — drift that, if absorbed silently, makes the original commitment meaningless
Technology & stakeholders
You'll manage 7 stakeholders, including Dr. Coralie Westerveld (VP, Clinical Operations — Rare Disease), Aidan Brockhouse (Senior Director, Clinical Program Management), Naledi Mokoena (Clinical Project Manager — ICON plc (CRO)), and more.
What you'll walk away with
A verified, shareable record of a completed enterprise project — plus the PMO deliverables you produced along the way (charter, project plan, SteerCo deck, closure document). It's real, demonstrable project management experience you can put on your resume and speak to in interviews.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need project management experience to start?
No. This simulation is built for aspiring and practicing project managers alike — you learn by doing. You make real decisions and get feedback, with no PMP or prior PM job required.
How long does this simulation take?
It runs over 27 days, roughly 25 minutes per day, covering the full project lifecycle from initiation to closure.
What will I learn?
You practice the core of project management — stakeholder management, budget and schedule control, risk, scope, and PMO governance — in the context of patient recruitment program in healthcare — pharmaceuticals & clinical research.
Is this based on the real Vertex Pharmaceuticals?
It's a realistic scenario inspired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Healthcare — Pharmaceuticals & Clinical Research sector. Details and names are fictionalized for training — it's a simulation, not a record of any actual project.
What do I get at the end?
A verified project completion plus the PMO deliverables you produced (charter, plan, SteerCo deck, closure) — proof of hands-on experience you can show employers.
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