Intelligent oversight and orchestration: How mission control is redefining R&D decision-making

Pharma R&D has invested millions in digitizing clinical operations, yet many portfolio and program decisions still rely on periodic reviews, static dashboards and manual escalation. Despite significant advances in data and analytics, leaders often struggle to answer critical questions quickly and consistently: Which assets should be accelerated, delayed or deprioritized? Which risks require intervention now? How will emerging operational signals impact timelines, costs and probability of success across the portfolio?

As pipelines become more complex and development timelines continue to compress, the gap between seeing a signal and acting on it is emerging as one of the largest barriers to R&D productivity. While organizations have improved visibility, many still lack the ability to systematically translate insights into timely, coordinated decisions.

Join industry experts for a discussion on the future of R&D oversight and why the shift from visibility to next best action is becoming essential. The conversation will explore how mission control combines connected data, scenario simulation and agentic AI to help R&D organizations move beyond monitoring performance to receiving real-time, risk-adjusted recommendations that connect cross-functional signals and surface the most effective actions to take next. Attendees will gain perspectives on how leading organizations are rethinking decision-making, improving operational agility and creating a more proactive approach to managing clinical development.

The session will include:

An industry perspective on the evolving R&D decision-making landscape and the barriers to faster, more informed action
A deeper look at how next best action capabilities can be embedded within drug development mission control to support decisions such as portfolio prioritization, resource allocation, risk mitigation and intervention before delays become business-critical
A live executive demonstration of mission control and next-best-action capabilities in action

Mike Martin

Principal

Mike leads ZS’s global clinical development practice, guiding life sciences clients to design smarter trials, improve enrollment and bring safe, effective products to patients worldwide. Mike has expertise across clinical development with a focus in study design, planning and patient and site experience. Outside of clinical development, he has also worked extensively within medical affairs and helped bridge R&D to commercial through portfolio strategy. Mike has spent all his time with ZS focused on pharmaceuticals and biotech.

Vishal Kabra

Principal

Vishal is a principal in ZS’s life sciences R&D practice area, with numerous years of experience helping biopharma organizations strengthen drug development and clinical operations. His work at ZS focuses on building modern clinical development capabilities by embedding data, analytics, automation and AI into core R&D and operating models. Vishal has deep expertise across clinical operations and quality and risk management, with a deep focus on risk-based quality management (RBQM), integrated data review, and clinical operations analytics and oversight.

Nitin Chawla

Principal

Nitin is a principal in ZS’s Insights & Analytics practice area and acts as a strategic advisor to healthcare provider and pharma clients. He drives innovative solutions to enhance the effectiveness of pharmaceutical workflows, particularly through AI-powered intelligence that enables step-shift improvements. Leveraging advanced analytics solutions, he brings real-time data and actionable insights to empower changes in the operating model. His recent work includes designing agentic solutions to cut across functional silos to drive seamless decision making.

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Intelligent oversight and orchestration: How mission control is redefining R&D decision-making

Panelists

Moderator

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