In today’s ACT Brief, we examine why APAC is attractive for global Phase III programs, how clinical research professionals can turn a failed pivotal trial into a redesigned success, and how FDA approved Sunharbo to reduce recurrent stroke risk.
News|Podcasts|October 22, 2026
ACT Brief: Applied Clinical Trials at 2026 SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit
Author(s)Andy Studna, Senior Editor
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how sites can avoid both fear-driven and overly aggressive AI adoption, why community-based research needs sustained financial investment, and why patient access matters more than organizational size.
This is the Applied Clinical Trials Brief—your fast track to the latest insights shaping clinical operations and drug development.
- In an
SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit interview , Mike Wenger, chief innovation officer at CRIO, identifies two opposite AI adoption failures. Sites that avoid AI out of fear misread sponsor expectations, which center on honoring contracts and confidentiality rather than banning the technology. Overcorrecting into aggressive adoption carries its own risk, so Wenger recommends scoping AI to small, well-suited pieces of a workflow and keeping repeatable processes in traditional software. - In
another SCRS summit interview , Jennifer Byrne, CEO and founder of Javara, argues that the central gap is financial rather than operational. She says reliable research infrastructure requires sustained investment rather than study-by-study funding, and points to government funding and public-private partnerships as possible routes. Byrne also warns that building research programs piecemeal ignores the real costs of developing the next generation of investigators. - In a
third SCRS summit interview , Kurt Mussina, CEO of Paradigm Clinical Research, argues that scale should drive operational efficiency but should not mean handing an entire study to a single site. Coordinating ten organizations is far heavier than managing two, yet sponsors remain risk-averse about concentrating studies in one organization. For Mussina, the real measure is whether an organization can access, enroll, and retain patients, not its size or number of locations.
That’s all for today’s ACT Brief. Join us tomorrow for more updates shaping clinical operations and drug development. Thanks for listening.
Related to this article
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how China’s trial startup timelines compare with those in the US and Europe, whether AI-drafted clinical study reports speed drug development, and how Bimzelx compared with Skyrizi in psoriatic arthritis.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine why APAC inspection findings mirror those in the US and Europe, how key risk indicators should be read together, and how FDA granted accelerated approval to a subcutaneous antibody therapy for recurrent head and neck cancer.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine why outdated views of Asia Pacific trial sites persist, how community access gaps reflect both patient costs and site infrastructure, and how VeonGen has aligned with the FDA on a pivotal gene therapy trial design.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how capturing friction in real time can reveal site burden, how OpenAI and Mistral compare on clinical trial matching, and how Boehringer Ingelheim is licensing early-stage oncology programs from SBP Group.
In Episode 4 of The Human Side of Clinical Trials, host Brian S. McGowan, PhD, FACEHP, chief learning officer and co-founder of ArcheMedX, Inc., speaks with Jason Riis, PhD, CEO and chief behavioral scientist at Behavioralize, about how capturing friction closer to the moment it happens can reveal unclear instructions, technology friction, and workarounds that retrospective surveys and debriefs tend to miss.
ACT Brief: Community Research Financing Gaps, Neuroscience Endpoint Data, and Teva’s Biosimilar Deal
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine why community research needs lasting financing and infrastructure, how electronic outcome tools can strengthen neuroscience endpoints, and how Teva is licensing two biosimilars from Samsung Bioepis.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine what changes when AI is embedded across clinical operations, why faster trial data isn’t yet producing faster decisions, and how FDA granted accelerated approval to a therapy for a rare airway disease.
Trending on Applied Clinical Trials Online
1
The Role of Clinical Research Professionals: From Early Discovery to Phase III Success
2
ACT Brief: China’s Startup Timelines, AI-Drafted Clinical Study Reports, and Bimzelx Psoriatic Arthritis Data
3
What Large Pharma Has Figured Out About APAC That Smaller Biotechs Are Still Learning
4
Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Diabetes Clinical Trials: Endpoints, Regulatory Guidance, and Operational Best Practices
5