ACT Brief: AI Partnerships, Global Trial Access, and a New Option for Menopause Symptoms

This is the Applied Clinical Trials Brief—your fast track to the latest insights in clinical research operations. In under three minutes, we’ll recap top stories, highlight expert perspectives, and keep you current on what’s moving the industry. Let’s get into it.

On today’s episode, we’re covering how AI partnerships are expanding capabilities in life sciences, how patient-centric technology could bring trials to underserved regions, and a major FDA approval offering a new option for menopausal symptoms.

We begin with new moves in AI innovation across life sciences. Medidata has expanded its long-standing partnership with Sanofi to integrate AI-driven Patient, Data, and Study Experience tools, aiming to optimize trial design and accelerate development. Meanwhile, BioRender announced a collaboration with Anthropic to embed its scientific illustration platform directly into Claude for Life Sciences, helping researchers generate visuals for publications and regulatory documents in real time. Together, these partnerships reflect a broader industry shift toward embedding AI throughout research and communication workflows—linking data, design, and discovery more seamlessly than ever before.

Next, we turn to how AI and patient-centric models are rethinking trial access in lower-income regions. A recent video interview featured insights on how traditional business models have limited investigator diversity by repeatedly relying on high-income research networks. New approaches using AI and machine learning can identify emerging investigators and patient populations, redistributing trial workloads and expanding participation in underserved countries. This shift could not only improve global equity in breast cancer research but also strengthen recruitment and site resilience industry-wide.

And finally, the FDA has approved Bayer’s Lynkuet (elinzanetant) as the first dual neurokinin receptor antagonist for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms—better known as hot flashes—associated with menopause. Results from the Phase III OASIS trials showed that Lynkuet significantly reduced the frequency and severity of symptoms while improving sleep and quality of life. The once-daily, hormone-free therapy offers a new treatment option for millions of women and is expected to become available in the U.S. this November.

That’s all for today’s ACT Brief. Join us tomorrow for more insights shaping the future of clinical operations and drug development. Thanks for listening.