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ICON Taps Anthropic and Microsoft to Streamline Clinical Trials with AI
Clinical trials are seeing rapid adoption of AI agents to automate routine tasks and reduce administrative work, thanks in part to their potential extensibility. ICON plc, a global contract research organization, is developing such agents with partners Anthropic and Microsoft.
The average phase 3 trial collects nearly 6 million data points, according to a Tufts CSDD and TransCerule study published in December 2025. Daily direct costs are around $55,000, expressed in 2023 dollars.
Tony Clarke, senior vice president of enterprise AI at ICON plc, sees 'huge opportunity' for AI agents to streamline clinical trials. The company is developing and scaling agents that can perform individual tasks or work together across a workflow.