Increasing Productivity in Clinical Research - Life Sciences Today Podcast Episode 48

Why It Matters

By dramatically shortening trial start‑up and operational delays, Yandu’s solution can reduce drug development costs and bring life‑saving therapies to patients faster.

Key Takeaways

• Clinical trial timelines waste 12‑18 months in “white space”.
• Yandu’s site‑centric platform cuts feasibility time by 50%.
• Automated, personalized follow‑ups reduce task completion from three weeks to five days.
• Reusable site data accelerates future trials and improves sponsor‑site relationships.
• Faster trial start‑up saves teams ~39 workdays annually per project.

Summary

Life Sciences Today host Danny Lieberman interviews Zena Sarif, founder of Yandu, about the chronic inefficiencies that prolong clinical‑trial timelines and how her startup aims to streamline the process.

Sarif explains that up to 12‑18 months of a drug’s development are spent in a “white space” between trial phases, where sites are slow to respond and data are siloed. Yandu’s platform replaces project‑centric data stores with a site‑centric architecture, offering login‑free, automatically structured communication and AI‑driven, personalized follow‑ups that cut feasibility timelines by half and reduce task completion from three weeks to five days.

The company reports that 91% of sites finish tasks within five days, shaving 13 weeks off site‑selection and saving teams roughly 39 workdays per year, while creating reusable knowledge that accelerates future studies.

If adopted broadly, these efficiencies could compress drug‑to‑market cycles, lower R&D costs, and improve patient access to therapies, signaling a potential shift in how sponsors and CROs manage clinical operations.

Original Description

We're excited to be back for another episode of the Life Sciences Today Podcast by Healthcare IT Today. My guest today is Zina Sarif, Founder and CEO at Yendou.

Zina Sarif is one of the most dynamic and inspirational founders I’ve met. She grew up in Morocco until age 20 and, after her PhD in biology, spent a decade in cancer drug discovery before leading clinical research at Parexel and PhIII oncology trials at AstraZeneca. Driven by the vision of a cancer-free world, she built Yendou to accelerate research, streamline site operations, and deliver life-saving treatments faster.

Yendou streamlines the site selection process and the interaction between CROs, sponsors, and sites, producing 2X improvements in productivity. One of my other guests from Lindus Health said it best, "Everyone is more productive with Yendou. We accelerated feasibility timelines by 50% while reducing manual follow-ups by 70%.”

For more great episodes of our Life Sciences Today podcast, check out: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/category/life-sciences-today-podcasts