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The Department of Health and Human Services launched SURPASS, a bold multi-initiative program aimed at slashing the time and cost of clinical trials. By leveraging AI, digital twins, and shared infrastructure, HHS hopes to cut the typical decade-long trial timeline to four years or less. An Oct. 15 webinar will invite stakeholder input to help shape the effort.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just hit the gas on clinical trial reform. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled SURPASS — a sweeping, multi-component initiative designed to make clinical trials faster, cheaper, and more accessible. The program targets longstanding inefficiencies: duplicative infrastructure, slow site activation, and fragmented patient data that collectively push drug development timelines to a decade and costs up to $2 billion — all while 90% of drugs still fail.
SURPASS centers on building adaptive platform trials powered by AI, digital twins, and real-time data analysis, so researchers can spot winners (and losers) earlier. Three complementary programs — STACK, COMMONS, and CINCH — tackle site activation, nationwide health data sharing, and patient-contributed real-world data, respectively. The goal: compress that 10-year timeline to four years or less.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: As more drug developers move early-stage trials overseas to sidestep U.S. regulatory friction, this overhaul aims to reclaim America's edge in biomedical research — and get promising treatments to patients sooner.
