Pediatric & Adolescent Obesity: Closing the Evidence Gap Through Better Trial Design, Upcoming Webinar Hosted by Xtalks

In this free webinar, learn how evidence-based trial design can help address remaining gaps in pediatric and adolescent obesity research. The featured speakers will discuss endpoint selection, biomarkers, patient-reported outcomes, retention strategies and regulatory planning across age groups. Attendees will also explore how to distinguish established approaches from limited evidence and unresolved questions when designing global pediatric obesity programs.

TORONTO, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Pediatric and adolescent obesity trials are now an established part of drug development, but major evidence gaps remain when translating findings across age groups. Regulatory architecture, including FDA draft guidance and ICH E11(R1), does not resolve how trial findings should be interpreted in a growing child. SCALE Teens and STEP TEENS demonstrate that GLP-1 receptor agonists improve BMI-based outcomes in adolescents, but evidence in children aged 6 to 11 remains sparse. Questions also remain around endpoint selection, body composition interpretation under active bone accrual and puberty, biomarker qualification, family-level attribution and participant retention.

This webinar explores these challenges through a graded evidence framework for obesity trials, helping sponsors distinguish established approaches from limited evidence and unresolved questions when designing global pediatric programmes. The featured panelists will discuss practical considerations across trial design, patient experience, biomarker strategy and multi-region regulatory planning.

The session will examine trial design and regulatory strategy for pediatric cohorts divided by age band, alongside validated, age-appropriate patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments, cross-cultural adaptation and engagement approaches intended to address discontinuation risk in adolescent pharmacotherapy trials. It will also explore pediatric biomarkers and bioanalytical strategies, including how exploratory markers of metabolic dysfunction may be positioned for eventual regulatory acceptance without overstating the available evidence.

Rather than presenting a settled template, the session works from a graded framework: what is supported well enough to design, what rests only on limited teaching cases and what remains genuinely open, giving sponsors a practical, evidence-based framework for developing global pediatric obesity programmes.

Register for this webinar to learn how evidence-based endpoint, biomarker, retention and regulatory strategies can strengthen obesity trials in pediatric populations.

Join Graham C Ellis, MD, Clinical Vice President, Signant Health; Justin Devine, MD, Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Synexa Life Sciences; and Shipra Patel, MD, Global TA Section Head Endocrinology/Metabolism, Global Head of Pediatrics, Parexel, for the live webinar on Friday, November 6, 2026, at 11am EST (5pm CET / EU-Central).

For more information, or to register for this event, visit Pediatric & Adolescent Obesity: Closing the Evidence Gap Through Better Trial Design.

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