Poorya Amini on Protocol AI, 800k Clinical Trials & Why Pharma Does It Wrong | Pharma Prescribed
Poorya Amini — founder and CEO of Risklick — joins Adam Walker to explain why clinical trial protocols have been written the same way since 1996 and what he's doing to change that.
Poorya trained as a veterinarian, completed a PhD in pharmacology and spent years managing cardiology trials at the University of Bern. Then came the amendment horror story: 12 months of KOL collaboration, a world-class protocol — and five amendments before a single patient was dosed. Nobody had checked that patients would be discharged at 48 hours, not 72.
That moment became Risklick. Protocol AI now draws on 800,000+ clinical trials to cut protocol development time by 50%, reduce amendments by 20% and shorten implementation by 40%. In January 2026, Risklick announced a major partnership with Citeline.
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- The amendment horror story: 12 months, five amendments, nobody checked discharge window
- Protocols built the same way since ICH-GCP in 1996 — and why nobody had solved it
- Building a database of 800,000+ trials by hand over three to four years
- The PDF crisis: 1 pharma company writing the same disease name 8 different ways
- MVP approach: building with end users
- Working with several top-20 pharma and multiple biotechs after just one year in market
- AI as co-pilot: why scientists need evidence, not commercial claims
- Change management as the real challenge of AI in pharma
- The Citeline partnership: protocol design to operationalisation to regulatory disclosure
- Human in the loop: AI agents with human escalation built in
- 25 people growing to 45 — and why staying agile is a deliberate strategy
- Discipline as a golden rule
0:00 Introduction & podcast mission
1:00 Meet Poorya Amini — founder of Risklick
2:00 The problem: protocols built the same way since 1996
3:00 The inner drive: refusing to accept the status quo
4:00 The amendment horror story — 12 months, five amendments
5:00 The 48-hour discharge nobody checked
6:00 How Risklick works: data-driven protocol design
7:00 Comprehensive historical data before study design
8:00 Connecting protocol design to operational systems
9:00 KPIs: time, startup speed and data quality
10:00 The PDF crisis: one disease, eight different names
11:00 2019 and the technology that made it possible
12:00 Building the evidence database: three to four years of work
13:00 Linking registries, publications, FDA labels and guidelines
14:00 Financial conviction: what kept him going
15:00 The MVP — proving the concept before scaling
16:00 Customer-centric development: building with end users
17:00 Selling to scientists: evidence over claims
18:00 Relating to the pain — the publication that took all day
19:00 Reducing friction so experts can do expert work
20:00 Meeting at the conference and why Adam was impressed
21:00 Six years on: traction with top-20 pharma
22:00 End-to-end design: avoiding the silo problem
23:00 Building the product before rushing to sales
24:00 Team of 25 growing to 45 — staying agile
25:00 Why Poorya stays in client conversations
26:00 Partnership model: growing with clients
27:00 Resistance at the start — and the pushbacks he faced
28:00 Why innovation needs a small, agile setting
29:00 Change management: the real AI challenge in pharma
30:00 AI acceptance: how conversations changed from 2019 to now
31:00 Scientists need scepticism — and why that's healthy
32:00 Onboarding step by step: not overwhelming users
33:00 Human in the loop: AI agents with human escalation
34:00 The future of AI in clinical trials
35:00 Quick-fire: don't give up on your dreams
36:00 Team player, problem solver, fast learner
37:00 Skiing, padel tennis, football and Young Boys Bern
38:00 Golden rule: discipline — and closing thanks
Dr. Poorya Amini is founder and CEO of Risklick AG, a Swiss digital health company. DVM and PhD from the University of Bern. Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Manager in Cardiology at the University of Bern Clinical Trial Unit.
🌐 https://www.risklick.ch
💼 https://ch.linkedin.com/in/poorya-amini-028951106
🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED
Long-form conversations with leaders in clinical research, digital health and mental wellbeing, hosted by Adam Walker.
🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com
💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-walker-2327951/
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