Andy Studna, Senior Editor

The pilot pairs drug sponsors with qualified research institutions to compress the path from drug identification to first-in-human study through rolling submission review and earlier coordination of institutional review board and site activation activities.

A Syneos Health-announced study from Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development finds no single sourcing model consistently outperforms others, pointing instead to vendor coordination, governance, and fit-for-purpose design as the real performance drivers.

In this video interview, Amélie Lothe, global medical community head for rare epilepsies at UCB Pharma, outlines what it takes to move beyond transactional engagement and treat patient advocacy organizations as long-term partners in the science and the care.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine what families with rare epilepsy teach about trial feasibility, how preclinical CRO partnerships are evolving beyond transactional services, and why cortisol dysregulation limits GLP-1 effectiveness in diabetes.

In this video interview, Amélie Lothe, global medical community head for rare epilepsies at UCB Pharma, shares what she has learned firsthand from families living with Dravet syndrome and CDKL5 deficiency disorder about what makes trial participation possible—and what makes it not.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine how shifting patient engagement to endpoint selection improves trial data quality, why execution infrastructure must precede AI deployment, and addressing missing baseline data in real-world oncology research.

Clinical trials have spent decades perfecting data capture, but the execution layer underneath it, including decision workflows, data collection design, and lab connectivity, remains fragmented in ways that limit what AI can realistically deliver and that quietly compromise the scientific validity of the data itself.

In this video interview, Amélie Lothe, global medical community head for rare epilepsies at UCB Pharma, describes how shifting patient engagement from protocol review to endpoint selection transforms both the quality of trial data and the experience of participation.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine why seizure reduction misses what families want from epilepsy trials, how lab coordination requires connecting data to intent, and why healthcare needs orchestration rather than more tools.

In this video interview, Amélie Lothe, global medical community head for rare epilepsies at UCB Pharma, explains why the full burden of developmental and epileptic encephalopathies extends far beyond clinical symptoms—and why endpoints must reflect what families are actually hoping for.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine genuine patient partnership in trial design, how AI enables informed recruitment while preserving clinician relationships, and moving patient engagement beyond performative gestures.

In this Q&A, John Worden, chief commercial officer at Javara, discusses why clinical trial recruitment has remained stubbornly one-size-fits-all, how AI can identify patients at scale without displacing the clinician relationships that drive trust, and what care-integrated research engagement needs to look like for health systems, sponsors, and sites.

In this video interview, Amélie Lothe, global medical community head for rare epilepsies at UCB Pharma, explains why genuine patient partnership begins before the protocol is written—and what it looks like when patients and caregivers tell you a trial was designed with them in mind.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine why black-box AI fails in clinical trials, how participant understanding drives engagement more than gamification, and FDA permanent leadership appointments prioritizing regulatory predictability.

In this episode of Beyond Compliance, Otis Johnson, PhD, MPA, founder and principal consultant at Vantix Operations, speaks with Joseph Geraci, PhD, co-founder and chief scientific and technical officer at NetraMark, about why explainable AI, not black-box prediction, is needed to reveal clinically meaningful patient subgroups in regulated drug development.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine how regulatory guidance and financial evidence enable RBQM adoption, why site payment performance remains a competitive differentiator, and a collaboration advancing an inhaled approach to cystic fibrosis.

In this Q&A, Patrick Mizer, chief technology officer at Ledger Run, discusses how payment reliability has become a competitive differentiator in site selection, why decades of disconnected workflows have made payment inconsistency a structural problem, and where AI is delivering real value in the high-friction parts of clinical trial payments.

In this video interview, Sylviane de Viron of CluePoints and Abigail Dirks of Tufts CSDD explain how ICH E6(R3) and new empirical evidence of RBQM's net financial impact give sponsors the tools they need to build the multi-functional buy-in required for successful adoption—and why RBQM only delivers full value when it replaces, not supplements, traditional monitoring.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine value hidden in the RBQM financial model, why rare disease research leads on genuine patient partnership, and how safety concerns shape IBD treatment decisions despite clinical efficacy.

In this video interview, Sylviane de Viron of CluePoints and Abigail Dirks of Tufts CSDD discuss what the RBQM financial model left out—reduced rework, improved data integrity, and inspection readiness—and why those excluded factors could represent even greater value than what was modeled.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine why time savings dominates the financial case for RBQM investment, how the FDA is strengthening inspection access and data integrity review, and how data governance models shape real-world evidence quality.

Senior FDA leaders outline concrete steps to strengthen inspection coverage and data integrity review as the globalization of clinical research strains the agency's oversight capacity.

In this video interview, Sylviane de Viron of CluePoints and Abigail Dirks of Tufts CSDD explain why time savings dominates the eNPV model for RBQM—and what that means for how sponsors should frame the internal case for investment.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine why many trial failures trace to human readiness gaps rather than process design alone, how CRO consolidation expands early-phase capacity, and how AI-enabled patient matching is reshaping recruitment economics.

The all-cash transaction adds a good laboratory practice-compliant bioanalytical laboratory, a 200-bed clinical pharmacology unit, and a biospecimen storage facility to Fortrea's early-phase development network.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine how eNPV modeling and real-world data finally put numbers on RBQM value, why static budgeting masks true site costs, and GSK advancing an mRNA flu vaccine candidate to late-stage testing.

In this video interview, Sylviane de Viron of CluePoints and Abigail Dirks of Tufts CSDD explain how combining real-world deployment data with eNPV modeling finally made it possible to put a number on the financial value of RBQM—and why oncology was chosen as a conservative starting point.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine why operating model redesign must precede agentic AI deployment, how integrated platforms compress operations toward accountable teams, and BioNTech's decision to terminate a colorectal cancer mRNA trial.

Agentic AI is arriving in clinical operations with genuine capability to absorb administrative work, but the organizations that will realize lasting value are those willing to redesign accountability structures, financial workflows, and operating models before deploying the tools on top of them.

In today's ACT Brief, we examine why 80% of sites operate on minimal cash reserves, how biomarker-informed enrollment risks excluding viable patient populations, and the growing role of predictive maintenance in preventing batch losses.