Regulatory

As the FDA's single-trial standard raises the cost of recruitment failure and diversity expectations intensify, sponsors are under pressure to move beyond study-by-study outreach toward programmatic, relationship-based approaches that treat patient engagement as a long-term strategic capability rather than a per-study operational task.

The traditional global-to-local communication model creates fragmented content through sequential adaptation, but a local-first approach using structured data and AI-orchestrated generation can embed stakeholder terminology and preferences from the start, reducing rework while improving clarity and relevance.

In this Q&A, Rob DiCicco, vice president of portfolio management at TransCelerate Biopharma, discusses the collaborative work underway with FDA and CTTI to explore selective safety data collection as a model for de-risking trial design, reducing site and patient burden, and scaling pragmatic trial approaches across the industry.

The FDA's launch of real-time clinical trial proof-of-concept studies signals a fundamental shift in regulatory oversight, one that most sponsors are not yet equipped to meet and that demands urgent investment in unified data infrastructure, quality-by-design practices, and protocol digitization.

Clinical data security built into system architecture from the foundation, rather than layered on afterward, reduces regulatory risk and actually accelerates research by removing manual compliance burden and improving team confidence in data integrity.

In this Q&A, Raj Indupuri, CEO and co-founder of eClinical Solutions, discusses what the FDA's push toward continuous data review actually demands of sponsors operationally, why fragmented systems are the core obstacle, and how AI and real-world evidence fit into a more data-driven regulatory environment.

From real-time evidence generation to federated AI to site-level data integration, ACT spoke with seven experts at DIA 2026 on the trends and challenges defining clinical trial operations today.

A coordinated department-wide initiative combines FDA regulatory reforms, NIH investments, and new agency programs to reduce development timelines and reverse a growing shift of clinical research overseas.

How sponsors can leverage both the EU Clinical Trials Regulation and UK’s reformed framework to achieve cost efficiencies, faster timelines, and stronger regulatory positioning.

In this Q&A, Robert Hummel, chief operating officer at Suvoda, discusses how agentic AI is compressing RTSM build and deployment timelines, what safeguards are needed to maintain compliance and oversight at speed, and how intelligent automation will reshape the broader clinical trial technology stack over the next decade.

In this video interview, Raj Indupuri, CEO and co-founder of eClinical Solutions, makes the case that governance and quality must be built into every stage of the trial life cycle—not enforced at database lock or submission—and what that requires from teams and technology.

In this video interview, Raj Indupuri, CEO and co-founder of eClinical Solutions, explains why the FDA's push toward continuous data review exposes the fragmentation at the heart of current clinical trial infrastructure and what unified data pipelines need to look like to make it possible.

From rising costs and regulatory uncertainty to persistent vaccine hesitancy, sponsors face mounting pressure to standardize operations, build community trust, and develop the behavioral capabilities needed to run vaccine trials effectively in a rapidly shifting environment.

Real-world evidence is shifting from a post-market footnote to a concurrent validation layer running alongside trial data, requiring organizations to build unified data environments that integrate EHRs, claims, and patient-reported outcomes on an ongoing basis rather than retrospectively.

Despite clear data quality and regulatory advantages, paper-based clinical outcome assessments persist due to cost asymmetry, trial complexity, startup timelines, and provider capability gaps, though hidden paper costs and loss of institutional knowledge often outweigh upfront electronic implementation expenses.

In this Q&A, Adrelia Allen, executive director of clinical trial patient diversity at Merck, discusses how the company is embedding diversity into clinical trial execution—from protocol design and site selection to long-term community engagement that extends well beyond individual trial timelines.

The CNPV program has compressed drug review timelines to as little as one to two months for qualifying sponsors, but succeeding under that pressure requires a fundamental rethink of how development teams plan, communicate, and execute.

Clinical Trials Day is an international celebration of everyone who makes medical discoveries possible. It is also an opportunity to shine a light on the innovations helping to keep research rising.

Webinar Date/Time: Thursday, June 4th, 2026 at 11am EDT|8am PDT|4pm BST|5pm CEST

Pediatric trial participation shapes children's and caregivers' long-term psychological outcomes, yet protocol design often overlooks experience as a variable affecting recruitment, retention, and data integrity—a gap increasingly recognized by regulators and quality standards

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s departure caps a turbulent tenure marked by leadership instability, industry pushback, and a series of regulatory controversies that complicated drug development for sponsors and CROs.

As imaging-heavy clinical trials grow more complex and globally distributed, sponsors are increasingly re-evaluating traditional infrastructure models, with cloud-native platforms showing potential to reduce operational burden, accelerate site activation, improve imaging quality oversight, and lower total trial costs.

Zentails announced the first dosage of Azenosertib administered in its phase III Aspenova trial to test azenosertib vs chemotherapy in Cyclin E1-positive platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.