Empactful Ventures

By Denise N. Bronner, Ph.D., fractional chief strategist, Empactful Ventures Leadership vacuums are expensive. They can impact internal morale and external optics, as well as actual dollars, delayed timelines, and decisions that never get made because nobody with authority will make them. In pharma, when a program loses its executive champion, it stalls, budgets freeze, and teams go into a holding pattern. Now imagine that happening at the FDA.

By Denise N. Bronner, Ph.D., fractional chief strategist, Empactful Ventures SCOPE Summit just wrapped up and what stood out the most this year wasn't the latest AI-enabled promise. It was what I heard in the hallways around the resort: The drive to do meaningful research is still there from the sites and vendors, but they are tired of running into the wall. That wall is the power dynamic in clinical trials.

By Denise N. Bronner, Ph.D., CEO and founder, Empactful Ventures For decades, the U.S. has served as the default anchor for global clinical development. From early feasibility through pivotal execution, the U.S. offered a familiar combination of scientific leadership, regulatory influence, and deep investigator networks. Yet the global trial footprint is changing, and the shift is becoming measurable.