Clinical trial budgeting remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in study startups, driving delays, rework, and frustration across sponsors, CROs, and research sites.

In this episode of the Clinical Trial Podcast, recorded live at Research Revolution, a clinical research conference hosted by Florence Healthcare, we take a hard look at why clinical trial budget negotiations continue to break down—and what experienced operators are doing differently.

This conversation brings together sponsor, site, and consultant perspectives to unpack the real drivers of delay, including slow escalation pathways, unclear or inconsistent budget justifications, misaligned expectations, and communication gaps between stakeholders.

Rather than rehashing theory, this episode focuses on practical, experience-driven insights you can actually apply.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The most common causes of delays during clinical trial budget negotiations
• How sites can create clear, defensible budget justifications without triggering endless revision cycles
• What sponsors look for when approving higher-than-expected line items
• Best practices for internal rate cards, fee schedules, and budgeting templates
• How improved communication and transparency can reduce negotiation friction and speed study startup

This episode features insights from:

1. Kristen McKenna, Senior Manager and Investigator Contracts Lead at Pfizer
2. Heidi Castle, Director of Business Development at Mercy Research
3. Matt Lowery, CEO and Principal Consultant at The Pathways Group

If you're involved in clinical trial budgeting, contracting, or study startup - whether at a sponsor, CRO, or research site - this episode offers practical insights to help you navigate negotiations more effectively and avoid common pitfalls.

Listen to the episode to hear how sponsor, site, and consultant leaders approach clinical trial budgeting and study startup.

Risk-based monitoring has been discussed in clinical research for more than a decade, yet many organizations still struggle to implement it in a meaningful and effective way.

In this episode of the Clinical Trial Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Artem Andrianov, a leading expert in clinical data quality and risk-based quality management, to unpack what risk-based monitoring really means in today's regulatory landscape.

Artem has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is the CEO and cofounder of Cyntegrity a company that specializes in data driven risk management in clinical trials.

Together, they explore how the industry has evolved from traditional monitoring approaches to a more holistic model centered on risk-based quality management and quality by design.

Dr. Andrianov shares practical insights on common misconceptions, why simply reducing monitoring is not a strategy, and how technology and analytics can be used to proactively manage risk.

The conversation also examines the changing role of CRAs, and the growing expectations from regulators and inspectors.

In this episode of the Clinical Trial Podcast, host Kunal Sampat sits down with Dr. Philip Räth, Managing Director of Palleos Healthcare, to discuss leading Clinical Research Organization (CRO) in the European Union (EU).

Managing a Clinical Research Organization is far more than project oversight. CRO leaders juggle sponsor expectations, site relationships, internal talent, regulatory demands, and profitability. A strong CRO partner can jumpstart a clinical trial for industry or academic sponsors that have limited infrastructure. A mismatched CRO, on the other hand, can derail timelines, add cost, and create friction you don't need.

About Today's Guest: Dr. Philip Räth

Dr. Räth brings 15 years of experience in the medical product industry and currently leads Palleos Healthcare, a central European full-service CRO supporting pre-clinical consulting through large-scale clinical trials.

Operations in 19 countries
336+ projects delivered
Expertise across 23 therapeutic areas

In this episode, you'll learn:

What makes a CRO truly sponsor-ready

Where CRO selection often goes wrong

How digital transformation and AI are reshaping CRO operations

Insights from Palleos' work across Europe and diverse therapeutic areas

The future of full-service clinical trials from a CRO leader's perspective

To get more insights about clinical research technology from a vendor's perspective, I invited Mike Wenger on the Clinical Trial Podcast.

Mike Wenger is a software developer with over 15 years of experience creating innovative solutions in clinical research.

At the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, he worked to connect Parkinson's patients with clinical studies.

He later developed Citeline Connect, bridging patient recruitment companies with pharmaceutical organizations, and founded VersaTrial to streamline clinical trial site workflows.

Mike is currently the Chief Innovation Officer at CRIO, an intuitive eSource solution that collects data directly at the point of patient interaction to lighten site burden while driving protocol compliance.

Please join me in welcoming Mike on the Clinical Trial Podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Florence Healthcare. Florence eliminates chaotic workflows in clinical research operations with remote access and digital workflow platforms. More than 37,000 study sites, sponsors, and CROs in 90 countries trust them to accelerate their operations. To learn more, visit https://florencehc.com

This podcast is brought to you by Calyx. Calyx is a trusted name in medical imaging, having delivered imaging services to meet the needs of global biopharmaceutical sponsors and clinical research organizations for over 25 years. To learn more, visit https://www.calyx.ai/

Saudi Arabia's modern healthcare system, diverse patient population, and research-savvy healthcare professionals make it a great place to conduct clinical trials. To learn more about the clinical trial requirements in Saudi Arabia, I invited Professor Majed Al Jeraisy on the show.

Dr. Al Jeraisy is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, King Saud Ben Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and Pediatric Clinical Pharmacy Consultant in King Abdullah Specialized Children Hospital. He was appointed as the chairman of the research office at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) in 2007 and was appointed as the Director of Clinical Trial Services in 2018.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Majed Al Jeraisy on the Clinical Trial Podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Learn more at https://www.slopeclinical.com/

This podcast is brought to you by Florence Healthcare. Florence eliminates chaotic workflows in clinical research operations with remote access and digital workflow platforms. More than 12,000 study sites, sponsors, and CROs in 45 countries trust them to accelerate their operations. To learn more, visit https://florencehc.com

To learn more about this important field of cardiovascular clinical research, I invited Dr. Gregg Stone on the podcast.

Dr. Stone is an Interventional Cardiologist and Director of Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Heart Health System and Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Professor of Population Health Sciences and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY.

He has served as the national or international principal investigator for more than 150 national and international multicenter randomized trials and studies (many of which have led to new device approval or indications in the US), has authored more than 3000 manuscripts and abstracts published in the peer-reviewed literature, and has delivered thousands of invited lectures around the world.

With an H-index of 202, Dr. Stone has been recognized in Nature Medicine as one of the most prolific authors in science, and by the Web of Science as among the top 0.01% of cited researchers in science.

Dr. Stone completed medical school at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, in Baltimore, MD, and his internship and residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

He completed his general cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA and subsequently a dedicated fellowship in advanced coronary angioplasty in Kansas City, MO.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gregg Stone on the Clinical Trial Podcast.

Sponsor(s):

This podcast is brought to you by Florence Healthcare. Florence eliminates chaotic workflows in clinical research operations with remote access and digital workflow platforms. More than 12,000 study sites, sponsors, and CROs in 45 countries trust them to accelerate their operations. To learn more, visit https://florencehc.com

This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Learn more at slopeclinical.com

In this episode, you will learn about what type of insurance (if any) is needed to conduct a clinical trial. We also discuss different insurance provisions, choosing the right insurance partner, regulatory requirements that dictate insurance and much more.

Dan is a seasoned insurance professional with 10+ years of underwriting and broking experience. Dan and his team also assist in the implementation of alternative risk mitigation strategies, and see themselves as strategic partners to those in the life science space. Dan graduated from the Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State University where he studied Risk Management and

Enjoy!

Sponsor(s):

This podcast is brought to you by Calyx. Calyx is a trusted name in medical imaging, having delivered imaging services to meet the needs of global biopharmaceutical sponsors and clinical research organizations for over 25 years. To learn more, visit https://www.calyx.ai/

This podcast is brought to you by Veeva SiteVault. Veeva connects patients, sites, and sponsors, on a single technology ecosystem to make clinical trials easier and faster. SiteVault gives research sites one place to work with sponsors – to reduce the number of systems and logins used to run clinical trials. To learn more, visit ​https://sites.veeva.com/​