Editorial Podcasts

In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how the CRA role is transforming alongside modern clinical trial technology, review the FDA’s approval of Imfinzi plus FLOT as the first immunotherapy regimen for resectable gastric and GEJ cancers, and look at Novo Nordisk’s fast-tracked submission of its higher-dose Wegovy injectable under the Commissioner’s Priority Review Program.

Melissa Hutchens, vice president of research & benchmarking at WCG, and Jimmy Garza, senior director of clinical operations at Bayer, discuss findings from the latest WCG CenterWatch Global Site Relationship Survey, revealing a decline in overall site satisfaction. They explore key drivers behind this trend, including technology usability, communication gaps, and limited site input in protocol design, and share actionable approaches to strengthen sponsor-site partnerships and improve study execution.

In this episode of the ACT Podcast, Jeneen Donadeo, executive director of portfolio management at TransCelerate, and Laura Galuchie, senior director and TransCelerate program lead at Merck, discuss the findings from a recent TransCelerate and Tufts CSDD study revealing that nearly one-third of data collected in Phase III trials is non-essential. They explore why trial complexity continues to grow despite industry efforts toward efficiency and share strategies for reducing data burden while maintaining compliance.

In this episode of the ACT Podcast, we highlight a recent Q&A featuring Ibrahim Kamstrup-Akkaoui, vice president of data systems innovation at Novo Nordisk; and a feature article by Chris Driver, senior director of product management, Patient Suite at IQVIA, in which they both highlight how sponsors are adopting automation to streamline operations.