Andy Studna, Senior Editor

New collaboration integrates Mayo Clinic’s multimodal clinical data and platform capabilities with Merck’s AI research to support earlier decision-making and improve development success rates.

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how Evinova is scaling AI-driven clinical development through industry collaboration, how the clinical trial project manager role is evolving amid growing complexity, and how FDA scrutiny of compounded GLP-1s could reshape market dynamics.

New partnerships with Astellas, AstraZeneca, and Bristol Myers Squibb position Evinova’s AI-native platform as a shared engine for optimizing clinical development, improving efficiency, and accelerating timelines.

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how SCOPE 2026 reinforced the link between speed and strategy, how AI adoption is driving real-world efficiency gains, and how FDA’s evolving evidence standards could reshape approval pathways.

Across keynotes, panels, and expert interviews, this year’s SCOPE Summit underscored that accelerating clinical research depends on disciplined data strategies, earlier operational planning, and sustained focus on patients, sites, and community trust.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, emphasizes that organizations willing to standardize data and adopt practical AI tools are already gaining efficiency, cost savings, and stronger real-time oversight across development programs.

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how predictive analytics are shaping portfolio decisions, how industry collaboration is scaling digital data standards, and how FDA review of an mRNA flu vaccine candidate is back on track.

Nonprofit biopharma consortium details progress in digital data flow, pragmatic trial design, safety modernization, and regulatory engagement in “The Power of Forward.”

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, outlines how predictive models are improving compound selection from early clinical phases, while noting the ongoing challenges of forecasting success from preclinical development to patient outcomes.

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how AI is enabling continuous trial monitoring and faster site decisions, how provider participation influences recruitment in pragmatic trials, and how leadership restructuring at HHS may shape health policy execution.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, explains how AI-enabled site selection, patient allocation, and real-time data monitoring can reduce costs, shorten timelines, and limit inefficiencies caused by non-performing sites.

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how AI is shifting from pilot programs into daily development workflows, how a new adoption platform is helping sponsors integrate digital measurement tools, and how global competition and data-driven site selection are reshaping clinical trial activity.

New FDA-funded resource consolidates regulatory guidance, validation standards, and implementation best practices to help sponsors and developers accelerate adoption of sensor-based digital health technologies in medical product development.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, discusses why 2026 marks a shift from AI pilots to broader operational implementation across clinical trials and drug development programs.

In today’s ACT Brief, we explore how eSource adoption is advancing with AI-enabled validation and interoperability, examine how flexible outsourcing models are helping sponsors balance control and efficiency, and highlight why adaptive, simulation-driven trial design is becoming essential to improving study success.

As eSource adoption expands, industry leaders are confronting new questions around AI oversight, unstructured data activation, institutional readiness, and regulatory trust. Here’s how experts say the next phase will unfold.

Miriam Dervan, founder & CEO of mdgroup, discusses how patient-centered strategies rooted in empathy and advocacy engagement can strengthen recruitment, retention, and overall trial execution.

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine new data on regional variation in clinical trial risk, why patient experience must move from intent to execution, and how digital endpoints are advancing efficiency and regulatory alignment in oncology trials.

Jeremy Wyatt, CEO, Ametris, explains how digital endpoints improve trial sensitivity, patient centricity, and efficiency through continuous real-world data, and why early regulatory collaboration is essential to reducing adoption risk and establishing consistent validation standards across programs.

In today’s ACT Brief, we cover a new real-world data collaboration aimed at scalable interoperability, how AI fits into modern data capture and quality oversight, and what leaders say must change to move diversity efforts forward in clinical trials.

Mike Wenger, chief innovation officer at CRIO, explains how AI can responsibly support data quality and monitoring with proper oversight, and why advancing eSource and EHR systems remains critical to strengthening data integrity and remote trial operations.

Strategic collaboration integrates Datavant’s privacy-preserving tokenization technology into Thermo Fisher’s PPD clinical research business to enhance real-world evidence generation, trial enrichment, and patient-level data connectivity.

In today’s ACT Brief, we cover how AI is being deployed to optimize global trial design, why ESG performance is emerging as a core vendor qualification signal, and how sites are becoming more selective as payment practices come under scrutiny.

Holly Leslie, vice president of services at Ledger Run, discusses how persistent payment friction, increasing administrative burden from AI-generated queries, and lack of sponsor accountability are pushing sites to become more selective—favoring sponsors that pay transparently, reduce operational strain, and treat site experience with the same rigor as patient recruitment.

Under a new strategic collaboration, Bristol Myers Squibb will deploy Evinova’s AI-native Study Designer platform to optimize trial design, improve decision-making, and drive efficiencies across its global clinical portfolio.

In today’s ACT Brief, we highlight how purpose-driven efficiency is reshaping clinical development priorities, where leaders see the greatest opportunity for accelerating trial timelines, and how artificial intelligence is already influencing decisions across the R&D lifecycle.

Otis Johnson, PhD, MPA, founder and principal consultant at Vantix Operations, discusses why suppliers must shift from ESG activity to decision-grade evidence, and how embedding sustainability into clinical research quality could reshape sponsor expectations, oversight, and supplier selection in the years ahead.

Raja Shankar, VP of machine learning at IQVIA, discusses which AI capabilities sponsors are most likely to adopt first to streamline trial workflows and reduce operational burden, while also highlighting emerging applications that could shape the next phase of clinical trial design.

Jeremy Wyatt, CEO, Ametris, discusses how operational best practices for integrating wearables into oncology trials center on minimizing patient burden through thoughtful workflow design, careful device selection, and early planning to ensure digital measures fit the realities of complex patient populations.

Charlie Paterson, partner at PA Consulting, explains how mixed signals on FDA risk tolerance are accelerating the globalization of clinical trial programs and reshaping how sponsors align development activities worldwide.