Clinical Transformation:
Results From Biopharma and CRO Leaders

Jul 11, 2025 | François Caijo

Clinical research professionals worldwide are united in a common cause: improving trial efficiency to get therapies to patients faster. So stepping away from our individual challenges and connecting with those who are looking for the same solution can be a turning point.

Recently, at Veeva R&D and Quality Summit, Europe discussions among biopharma and CROs highlighted a common theme for clinical data leaders: innovating with the end user in mind. Whether this is study teams, clinical research associates, or patients, ensuring our solutions actually improve the day-to-day lives of all those involved in clinical trials is a must. These leaders shared practical strategies and valuable lessons, offering a roadmap for others navigating similar challenges.

Clinical data transformation: Real-world achievements

Biopharmas and CROs shared how their organizations are innovating and achieving efficiency amidst clinical trial complexity. Key discussions centered around the power of connected clinical platforms to simplify and standardize operations across sponsors, CROs, sites, and patients. These discussions highlighted how unifying electronic data capture (EDC), clinical database (CDB) management, electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOA), clinical trial management (CTMS), electronic trial master files (eTMF), and payment solutions are fundamentally transforming trial execution.

Below are some of the outcomes achieved by leading organizations:

Improving patient experience and ROI

• UCB: “At UCB, improving patient lives is at the core of all that we do, bringing together expertise, talent, tools and science. We received positive feedback from patients and site staff, and are financially delivering a positive ROI, projected to save millions” – Edwin Erckens, chief digital technology officer.
• 100% of all eligible studies are on Veeva eCOA, ahead of schedule

Platform efficiency and targeted cost savings

• Clinical Keynote: With several important milestones in the next year, “we will arrive at a simplified landscape that doesn’t take all our money, brains, and time to maintain” – Senior Director, Clinical Digital Innovation, Top 20 Biopharma.
• 15-20% savings targeted from streamlined processes across departments
• 30+ applications and 80+ integrations decommissioned
• 12,500+ internal and site users and 65+ business processes are supported by the Veeva Clinical Platform

Time savings and process improvement

• Top 20 biopharma: “We promised from the beginning that the program would have a user-centric focus” – VP Data Systems Innovation.
• Reduced cycle times by 50% in early trials — on the path to a 1-day EDC build
• Reduced time and effort on study build by 20%
• Reduced time taken to clean and monitor data by 20%
• Top 20 biopharma: “We have eliminated error-prone data transfer and have achieved cross-functional data flow” – Capability Owner Clinical Data Collection.
• Eliminated 3 custom integrations and interfaces across 4 systems for recruitment tracking
• Improved EDC site set-up: 500-700 FTE hours saved across 30 studies (~100,000 EUR) on monitoring time through the EDC-CTMS connection
• eCRF was on the critical path and now starting to save time from LPLV to DL

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• Global CRO: “The CTMS-EDC connection enables centralized monitoring. We can drill down into the data, see tasks and issues, track site progress, and make smart decisions” – Senior Clinical Operations Lead.
• SDV data from EDC is pre-filled in CTMS, saving CRAs significant time

Industry calls to action

Presenters at Summit also offered advice to those considering or undergoing a similar transition to a clinical platform approach. There was a universal focus on user centricity when planning platform adoption, with a call to empower clinical teams and data managers with autonomy.

Another key theme was building resilience and fostering adaptability in the early stages. “Find an easier way to start, and get started,” says the senior director, clinical digital innovation at a top 20 biopharma, emphasizing the importance of taking the first step, no matter how small.

In tandem, the VP of data systems innovation at another global biopharma company recommends “starting with an end-to-end process review” before implementing new systems. He also advises team empowerment, laying out clear responsibilities and providing the autonomy needed to drive change: “Empower the people that are doing the work,” he says.

Cross-functional relationships and partnerships between stakeholders are high priorities for innovation leaders. Edwin Erckens, chief digital technology officer at UCB, used his decades-long partnership with Veeva as an example of the importance of long-term relationships with vendors: “There needs to be an alignment of values. We have a common bold challenge.”

Marion Mang, capability manager at her company, focused her advice on site relationships: “Boehringer Ingelheim engages with sites at an early stage – either directly or via the established Site Advisory Panel – to transparently share information on relevant processes and systems, and to respectfully invite their valuable input and feedback.”

Joyce Moore, global head patient engagement at Allucent, put the onus on site training: “Identify sites early that are less tech enabled, and feed this into training.”

Continuing the journey

Sharing our successes and contributing to industry knowledge is vital. Discussions among clinical data leaders, like those at Veeva R&D & Quality Summit, provide opportunities to learn about peers’ innovation initiatives, and the conversations initiated spark progress into the future.