Representatives of industry and regulation will meet in June to discuss paths forward for the UK’s clinical trials sector following its recent reform and revitalisation.
Delegates convene in London on 10–11 June at the 12th annual Outsourcing in Clinical Trials UK & Ireland conference to explore the challenges, innovations, and opportunities of trial outsourcing. Attendees include industry representatives from entities such as Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Roche, as well as the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Talks follow a strong performance for the country’s clinical trials space in 2025. This is in stark contrast to May 2023, when a landmark review by former health minister Lord James O’Shaughnessy found the UK dropped from the fourth leading contributor to international trials in 2017 to the tenth.
The country has since taken steps towards reform, including removing duplicate requirements for trial approval in December 2024. Lord O’Shaughnessy described the sector’s turnaround as “remarkable”, as per a 20 May 2025 release. A paper published by the MHRA on 9 April 2025 reasserts the UK as a world leader in trial activity.
The conference begins on 10 June with a talk from Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser to the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care. She will focus on government priorities and cross-organisational collaboration to bolster the country’s global appeal as a clinical research destination.
Talks then split into two streams on outsourcing in clinical trials and clinical trials in oncology. Panels analysing the current and future states of the UK trial sector set the tone for the conference, delving into patient centricity and NHS collaboration.
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By GlobalDataAfternoon presentations include a third stream on technological innovation in trials. Within these talks, the renewed outlook of the MHRA’s Clinical Trials Unit is to be outlined by Andrea Manfrin, the unit’s deputy director. Meanwhile, management of human data and specimens amid a shifting geopolitical landscape will be discussed by Catherine Mela, head of precision medicine at GSK.
Opening the second day is a presentation on AI in clinical trials from Blanka Hezelovna, associate director of precision medicine at GSK, who will look at implementing generative AI in trials. A panel discussion follows on challenges to trial recruitment and site setup in the UK and Ireland, including participants like Saeeda Bashir, head of clinical trials policy at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Afterwards will be parallel streams on trial operations and technology, with an analysis of trends in the clinical trial landscape through 2024 and future projections by Priya Ravisekara, senior analyst at GlobalData. Suki Balendra, director of strategic partnerships at Paddington Life Sciences, will explore the advancement of diversity in clinical research, after which the conference concludes with a series of interactive roundtable sessions.
The 12th Annual Outsourcing in Clinical Trials UK & Ireland conference is hosted by Arena International Events Group, a B2B events company owned by GlobalData, the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Click here to read the agenda for the conference.
