ACT Brief: Legacy Trial Workflows, Medical Writing Talent Gaps, and Post-Exposure COVID Prevention

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

• In part two of a video interview, Kent Thoelke, CEO of Paradigm Health, describes how manual eligibility screening and swivel-chair data entry force community sites to trade billable patient care for research. He explains why that burden is so hard for these sites to absorb.
• In a new contributor article, Janice Worley and Lori Eads of ProPharma argue that medical writing capacity pressure is a talent development problem rather than a technology problem. They note that AI cannot replace the experienced judgment needed to review its output and mentor the next generation of writers. They recommend treating training and mentorship as strategy rather than an HR afterthought.
• In an interview with Pharmaceutical Executive, Dr. Florin Draica of Shionogi explains how XOCOVA blocks viral replication in the window between COVID-19 exposure and symptom onset. Although 98% of trial participants had detectable antibodies from prior infection or vaccination, the drug still reduced symptomatic COVID-19 among household contacts by 67% compared with placebo through day 10. He stresses that the drug should be taken as soon as possible and within three days of exposure.

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