PATIENT ADVOCATE SPOTLIGHT: Transforming Patient Experience from Transactional Participation to a Tailored, Empowered Journey

  • Aligning advocacy and industry to shape better trials that reflect the real world
  • Protecting patient rights in an increasingly data-driven trial environment, from informed consent and data ownership to transparency over how patient data is collected and shared
  • Balancing the use of patient data and AI with transparency, trust, and patient control to ensure new technologies enhance rather than complicate the patient experience
  • Moving beyond standardized touchpoints to deliver more responsive and human-centered patient support

PATIENT ADVOCATE SPOTLIGHT Bringing The Lived Patient Experience into How Clinical Trials Are Designed and Navigated

  • Bringing the patient voice into every stage of development and embedding patient advocates from day one, moving from feedback to true co-creation across the trial lifecycle
  • Breaking down barriers in access, diversity, and language to expand participation, build trust, and make trials truly patient-centered
  • Simplifying participation and communication to reduce burden, improve understanding, and generate richer, more meaningful data
  • Leveraging patient experiences to help change the landscape, making clinical trials better for patients worldwide

PRIZE DRAW

Visit our exhibitors’ booths throughout the day and collect stamps in order to enter our Prize Draw and be in for a chance of winning Apple prizes or Amazon gift cards. The Prize Draw will take place in the Exhibition Hall. Make sure you don’t miss out!

PANEL DISCUSSION: Accelerating Study Start-Up: Driving Operational Readiness and Trial Momentum for Faster Trial Launches

  • Effectively championing adaptive trial designs to stay nimble as the clinical research landscape continues to evolve
  • Streamlining protocol finalization, regulatory submissions, and feasibility assessments to shorten start-up timelines
  • Identifying and engaging the right sites as part of a broader operational readiness strategy
  • Coordinating cross-functional teams, vendor partnerships, and internal stakeholders to ensure smooth study initiation
  • Implementing robust onboarding, training, and communication plans to set the trial up for success from day one
  • Reducing contract cycle times to accelerate study start-up

Moderator: Michael Murphy, Director, Legal & Associate General Counsel, Ionis

Interactive Speaker-Hosted Breakfast Breakout Discussions

With drinks and refreshments, interactive breakout sessions offer a unique opportunity to come together with your peers to share best practice and develop solutions to critical challenges facing the industry as a whole. Each discussion will run twice and be led by a table moderator and will focus on a different challenge within clinical trials. Breakout discussions are an exciting, interactive way to build your personal network and learn from the experience and expertise of others.

Discussion 1 Turning Inspection Fears into Operational Readiness In An Uncertain Regulatory Environment

Hosted by Regina Griffin, Associate Director, Clinical Operations, Autobahn Therapeutics

Discussion 2 Vendor Oversight – Whose Job Is It Anyways?

Hosted by Denise Deegan, Associate Director, Clinical Operations, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics

Discussion 3

Beyond the Pilot: Turning AI into a Scalable Drug Development Strategy

Hosted by Shivam Patel, Monitoring Oversight and AI Automation Lead, Moderna

Discussion 4 Breaking Down Data Silos: Creating a More Connected Clinical Trial Ecosystem

Hosted by Wei Cheng, Executive Director, Apogee Therapeutics

Discussion 5 Why Patients Walk Away from Clinical Trials and What the Industry Still Gets Wrong

NEW FOR 2026! INDUSTRY HOT TAKES PANEL

This panel will take place in TRACK A: Outsourcing & Clinical Operations

1 stage, a variety of rapid-fire opinions, bold predictions and myth-busting from experts across the industry. Audience members will vote, agree or disagree, on each hot take! There’ll be a chance for the audience to pose some questions to the panel too.

The panel will answer the following:

  • Biggest mistake in clinical trials today
  • One thing pharma should stop doing
  • One prediction for 2030
  • What’s overhyped and what’s worth the hype
  • What vendors misunderstand
  • Where trials fail most often
  • Biggest recruitment mistake
  • Hot takes from the audience

Moderator: Robert Loll, SVP, Business Development & Strategic Planning, Praxis

RFPs and How to Improve the Communication Of Specifications With CROs To Get More Of What You Want And Derisk Your Programs

  • Better RFP specifications lead to better proposals, pricing, timelines, and accountability.
  • The protocol is not the specification, define the operational assumptions CROs need to price and plan accurately.
  • Separate requirements, assumptions, and CRO recommendations so proposals can be compared consistently.
  • Standardize bid grids and key assumptions while still allowing CROs to propose differentiated solutions.
  • Surface exclusions, dependencies, and hidden assumptions early, these are often the source of future change orders.
  • Build uncertainty into the RFP with scenarios for sites, countries, enrollment, timelines, and amendments.
  • Use the RFP and bid defense to test how the CRO thinks, not just what they charge.
  • Carry proposal commitments into the contract, governance plan, KPIs, and operating model.
  • The goal is not simply a better bid, it is better communication, fewer surprises