ACT Brief Episode 6: Supreme Court Ruling, VK2735 Obesity Trial, and Padcev-Keytruda Survival Gains

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 interviews, and keep you current on what’s moving the industry. Let’s get into it.

On this episode, we’re spotlighting our three most-viewed articles from the past week—covering funding cuts in medical research, advances in obesity treatment, and new survival benefits in bladder cancer.

We start with Washington, where the Supreme Court has upheld NIH funding cuts tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. The 5-4 ruling impacts more than 1,700 medical research grants in areas including heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and HIV/AIDS. For clinical operations, the decision means leaner budgets, potential staffing challenges, and slower site payments. Diversity-focused studies face the greatest risk, raising concerns about representation, equity, and long-term trial capacity.

In obesity research, new data from the Phase II VENTURE-Oral trial show that oral GLP-1/GIP dual agonist VK2735 achieved up to 12.2% mean body weight loss over 13 weeks, with nearly 97% of participants achieving at least 5% weight loss compared to just 10% on placebo. An exploratory arm suggested that weight reductions could be maintained at lower doses after down-titration. The treatment was generally well tolerated, and Phase III trials are already underway.

And in oncology, the Phase III EV-303/KEYNOTE-905 trial has shown that the combination of Padcev and Keytruda, given before and after surgery, significantly improved event-free and overall survival in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who are ineligible for cisplatin-based chemotherapy. This marks the first systemic therapy to extend survival beyond surgery alone in this population, addressing a critical unmet need.

For more on this and other developments in clinical research, visit us at appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com. Thanks for listening to the Applied Clinical Trials Brief.