A predictable flow
of new clinical trial sponsors.

30 July 2026: first patient dosed in the Phase 1 single-ascending-dose study of VRB-103, the first known once-weekly, amylin-receptor-selective oral amylin analog in clinical development, in patients with elevated BMI, including combination arms with VRB-101. Initial Phase 1 data expected end of 2026. Seven days earlier, on 23 July 2026, Marso himself was appointed CMO, arriving from Metsera where he was CMO until the Pfizer acquisition, and having led the first generation of GLP-1 peptides at Novo Nordisk.

Textbook timing. A brand-new Chief Medical Officer setting clinical strategy for two oral obesity programmes, at the precise moment the next protocols are being designed and before any endpoint is fixed. Obesity is the clearest use case in your portfolio — did patients actually become more physically active, are they sleeping better — and Marso’s reputation is built on analysing GLP-1 trial data, so an argument about objective versus self-reported measures needs no explaining.

29 April 2026: formal endorsement to advance petrelintide, an amylin analog, into Phase 3 for chronic weight management with partner Roche, after double-digit weight loss with placebo-like tolerability in the ZUPREME-1 Phase 2. Phase 3 initiation planned for the second half of 2026, so the protocol is being finalised now. A Phase 2 of petrelintide combined with Roche’s enicepatide was also slated for Q2 2026.

A Phase 3 obesity programme whose endpoint architecture is being settled in exactly this window, run by a Chief Development Officer who was recruited in June 2025 specifically to lead development and regulatory strategy for the Roche obesity collaboration, after nearly thirty years at UCB, Medpace and Novo Nordisk. Denmark is also the metabolic and obesity heartland. Worth noting for the campaign: Zealand is the Danish-domiciled counterparty, which is what keeps this prospect in scope while Roche’s Swiss head office is not.

July 2026: started the Phase 3 ZENITH AD programme for rezpegaldesleukin in moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. ZENITH AD-1 and AD-2 are enrolling treatment-naive patients, AD-3 follows with systemic-experienced patients, and the first BLA is targeted for 2029. The Phase 2b showed rapid, strong onset on both EASI-75 and Itch-NRS. Tagliaferri’s remit spans clinical development, clinical operations, biostatistics, data management, drug safety and regulatory affairs.

The sharpest technical fit in this sample. Their itch endpoint is Itch-NRS, a patient-reported numeric rating scale — precisely the kind of subjective measure actigraphy corroborates. A 2026 analytical validation study measured nocturnal scratching in adults with atopic dermatitis using the GENEActiv wristband with sleep and scratch algorithms. Activinsights does not have to argue the concept here: the validation already exists, in their indication, on this device, and GENEActiv is specifically documented as capturing fine motor movement including scratching.

January 2026: launched with a $50M Series A led by SR One, Vida Ventures and Platanus, then closed a $45M extension led by Janus Henderson, taking the Series A to $95M total. Lead programme PHB-050, a next-generation triple-action anti-IgE antibody, is in Phase 1 for food allergy, asthma and atopic dermatitis. Baird was appointed CEO in October 2025, previously CEO of 2seventy bio; founder Tony Yao is now Chief Scientific Officer.

A newly funded company with $95M to deploy, one asset in Phase 1 and Phase 2 protocols across several atopic indications still unwritten — the definition of getting in before the protocol locks. Atopic dermatitis brings nocturnal scratching and sleep disruption straight back into play, and at this company size the CEO genuinely is the person who decides what the trial budget buys, which makes it a single conversation rather than a committee.

7 August 2026: announced initiation of a Phase 1 first-in-human study of NBIP-’1968, a GLP-1/GIP/glucagon receptor triple agonist for obesity. Keswani, quoted in the release, framed obesity as a complex chronic disease driven by multiple biological pathways. He took the CMO seat in June 2025 and is responsible for all clinical development and medical affairs, arriving from ImmunoBrain (President and CEO) and before that Roche, where he was R&D head for neuroscience, ophthalmology and rare diseases.

Phase I is exactly the entry point that matters most, and this is a large sponsor with a long pipeline behind the asset — the tier where a Phase I win compounds, because the device cannot be swapped once comparable data exists. The programme is eleven days old at the time of writing, which means the endpoint architecture for the Phase 2 that follows has not yet been set. A large-sponsor contact who owns all clinical development rather than one therapeutic area.

23 March 2026: first participant dosed in the Phase 1b KOANEWA trial of CTx1000, a genetic medicine targeting pathological TDP-43 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, running at the Neurology Department of Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney. Co-founders Professor Lars Ittner (Chief Medical Officer) and Professor Yazi Ke (Chief Operating Officer) sit alongside Sunn, who is also Director of Commercialisation at Macquarie University.

The most reachable prospect on the list: a small founder-led team where the CEO reads her own email and the decision needs no internal business case. ALS is also where wearable-derived gait and ambulation endpoints carry the strongest current momentum — continuous real-world monitoring set against the single ambulation item of the ALSFRS-R, and stride velocity 95th centile is already EMA-qualified as a primary endpoint in a neuromuscular indication. A Phase 1b company planning its Phase 2 is making that choice right now.

2026, running: initiated the Phase 3 Brilliance studies of alixorexton in narcolepsy type 1 and type 2, with FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation granted for NT1 and detailed positive Vibrance-2 Phase 2 results presented at SLEEP 2026 in June. The company is publicly positioning narcolepsy R&D as a launchpad into a wider range of fatigue therapies. Hopkinson leads discovery, pharmaceutical development, early and late-stage clinical development, regulatory affairs and clinical operations.

Sleep is where Activinsights claims outright leadership, and Alkermes is building a franchise on wakefulness and fatigue — endpoints that questionnaires capture badly and actigraphy captures natively. Their stated ambition to expand beyond narcolepsy into broader fatigue indications means a sequence of new protocols rather than a single study, so an early relationship compounds across the franchise. Ireland is also an opt-out jurisdiction, so this contact is clean to email.

5 August 2026: the FDA approved ORZEYFUL (oveporexton), an oral orexin receptor 2 agonist, as the first and only medicine to treat the underlying cause of narcolepsy type 1, on the strength of the Phase 3 FirstLight and RadiantLight studies. Approval in China followed. Thirteen days old at the time of writing. Sheikh is a physician-scientist, Oxford-trained, previously at Biogen and Celgene, and sits on the board of Target ALS.

Two reasons, and the second is the more interesting. A newly approved sleep-wake medicine creates immediate demand for objective real-world wake and sleep data, which is post-market surveillance — the Phase IV segment Activinsights has not yet entered. And Sheikh runs Takeda’s entire late-stage pipeline across neuroscience, oncology, vaccines and gastrointestinal, so a conversation that starts on one orexin asset does not end there. Takeda is why Japan mattered as a geographic addition, though the clinical contact is US-based, which is how much of that extension works in practice.

March 2026: appointed to build and lead a newly created Global Early Phase Center of Excellence, supporting biotech sponsors from first-in-human through Phase I into Phase II, combining regulatory strategy, scientific and medical leadership, clinical operations, biometrics and pharmacovigilance. She brings 15+ years across local and global CROs and deep knowledge of the site and vendor ecosystem across Australia, North America and Asia Pacific.

The single best-aligned contact in the sample. Her mandate is literally the phase you most want to enter, her remit explicitly includes the vendor ecosystem, and she serves a portfolio of biotech sponsors — so one relationship can put GENEActiv in front of many protocols rather than one. A CRO partnership is the leveraged version of this campaign, and it is already proven: Precision for Medicine sits on your own client wall.

1 January 2026: commenced as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, based at the company’s new global headquarters in Singapore, having served as Chairman since 2021. A critical care physician by training, he spent 23 years at Quintiles and IQVIA including ten years on the global executive committee as Head of Asia and Japan, leading 15,000+ staff across 13 Asia-Pacific countries and building the region’s first billion-dollar CRO business. In October 2025 Novotech also published a global growth map for radiopharmaceutical trials.

A chief executive in his first year is the classic window for reviewing vendor and technology partnerships, and this one is a clinician who understands endpoints rather than a pure operator. Novotech’s biotech-sponsor base skews early-phase, which matches the Phase I entry strategy precisely. Singapore is one of the newly added in-scope countries and an opt-out jurisdiction, so the head office is directly emailable.