ACT Brief: Epilepsy Trial Feasibility and Family Realities, CRO Partnerships and Strategic Value, and Cortisol and GLP-1 Response

This is the Applied Clinical Trials Brief—your fast track to the latest insights shaping clinical operations and drug development.

• In part four of her interview, Amélie Lothe, global medical community head for rare epilepsies at UCB Pharma, shares what she has learned firsthand from families living with Dravet syndrome and CDKL5 deficiency about what makes trial participation possible and what makes it not. Feasibility is not determined by disease severity alone but by whether the trial's visit burden, travel requirements, and measurement regimens align with how families actually live and manage their conditions.
• In a new contributed article, Partha and Jayanthi Anbil examined how preclinical CRO partnerships have evolved from transactional vendor relationships to strategic alliances where CROs contribute intellectual property, innovate, and create value alongside sponsors. The preclinical CRO market is projected to grow from $10.11 billion in 2025 to $32.61 billion by 2034, driven by rising trial complexity and outsourcing now representing over 49% of total R&D spending globally.
• In a Q&A from Pharmaceutical Executive, Dr. Elena Christofides, scientific advisor for Sparrow Pharmaceuticals, discussed how cortisol dysregulation mechanistically reduces GLP-1 effectiveness by disrupting glucose signaling, insulin signaling, and fuel partitioning. When patients fail to achieve expected GLP-1 response, screening for cortisol dysfunction becomes critical, yet many providers still default to non-adherence assumptions rather than diagnosing underlying pathology that may be limiting medication effectiveness.

That's all for today's ACT Brief. Join us tomorrow for more updates shaping clinical operations and drug development. Thanks for listening.