Generative AI and Adaptive Trials Shape Future Biotech Development

*Full transcript available below

In an interview with BioPharm International® focusing on the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Ben Edwards, chief operating officer, Avance Clinical, outlines how contract research organizations (CROs) can help biotechs succeed in an increasingly competitive landscape. With more than 25 years of CRO experience, Edwards focuses on designing and delivering operations that accelerate drug development for emerging biotech companies.

Avance Clinical’s presence at the conference is driven by a clear mandate, says Edwards, which is to engage biotech executives on how to speed access to data, patients, and key value inflection points. The company’s expertise includes first-in-human healthy volunteer studies, adaptive design trials, and high-impact therapeutic areas including central nervous system, oncology, renal, and cardiometabolic conditions.

According to Edwards, biotech leaders are wrestling with three interconnected priorities:

• understanding the competitive landscape for their assets
• gaining faster access to high-quality clinical data
• using capital efficiently to reach critical milestones.

"[Another] key theme would be, how can AI generative, AI, and other AI tools really accelerate preclinical development and clinical development and…accelerate access to data and development of new drugs for patients that really need it?" he adds.

How can generative AI transform early-stage drug development and clinical trials?

The answer for Edwards lies in deploying generative AI and advanced analytics across preclinical and clinical workflows to compress timelines, de-risk decisions, and unlock earlier insights. By integrating AI into protocol design, patient access strategies, and adaptive trials, CROs aim to help sponsors move faster, smarter, and more cost-effectively from concept to clinic and, ultimately to patients, he says.

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The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference runs Jan. 12–15, 2026 in San Francisco.

About the speaker

Ben Edwards, Chief Operating Officer, Avance Clinical

Working closely with the CEO, Edwards leads business growth and aligns operations with future goals. With more than 24 years of industry experience, including over 19 years in CROs, he has supported global and Asia-Pacific clients in achieving pharmaceutical market registrations, including approvals from FDA, the European Medicines Agency, Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, and China’s National Medical Products Administration. Edwards champions an action-oriented, ethical, and accountable, team-first culture focused on delivering client value and improving patient access to treatment.

Transcript

Editor's note: This transcript is a direct, unedited rendering of the original audio/video content. It may contain errors, informal language, or omissions as spoken in the original recording.

Speaker 1

Hi. My name is Ben Edwards. I'm the Chief Operating Officer for advanced clinical my role at the business is to really be the architect for designing and delivering our operations, for our clinical CRO business. I've been in the CRO sector for over 25 years, working globally to support biotechs to deliver their drug development to international regulators.

Advanced clinical has a large team attending JP Morgan biotech showcase and redefining early stage investment this year in San Francisco, in January, we are planning to engage with biotech executives during the conference and really talk to them about how they can accelerate their drug development programs and access to patients in clinical trials, in particular in first in human healthy volunteer Studies, adaptive design trials, as well as therapeutic areas such as central nervous system conditions, oncology, renal, cardio metabolic conditions. Biotechs and biotech executives really concerned about a couple of key things today. Number one is, what is the competitive landscape for their product, and how can they access data ahead of the competition? So it's really, I think, going to be about, how can we support acceleration of data access, both within first in human and adaptive design trials? And that also links into funding. How can we be efficient with the use of capital through that early stage development to get them to that key inflection point quickly and efficiently through with the use of capital? I think to those two key themes will be tied together. The third key theme would be, how can AI, generative AI, and other AI tools really accelerate pre clinical development and clinical development, and again, accelerate access to data and development of new drugs for patients that really need it.