Introduction
Clinical trial data is fragmented, inconsistent, and often buried in registry databases that weren't designed for strategic analysis. ClinicalTrials.gov alone contains over 500,000 studies, but extracting actionable intelligence from this data—understanding who's developing what, where trials are being conducted, which investigators are leading the field—requires hours of manual work.
Syfrah was built to solve this problem. We aggregate clinical trial data from global registries, normalize it into a consistent structure, enrich it with regulatory and investigator information, and make it searchable in seconds. The result is a platform that turns raw registry data into competitive intelligence.
This documentation covers everything you need to use syfrah effectively—from basic trial searches to building automated pipelines with our API.
Who uses syfrah
Our users span the drug development lifecycle. Here's how different teams typically use the platform:
Competitive Intelligence teams
Track what competitors are doing in specific therapeutic areas. A typical workflow might involve monitoring all Phase 3 oncology trials from the top 20 pharma companies, setting up alerts for new trial registrations, or analyzing how a competitor's pipeline has evolved over the past 5 years.
Common questions: "What trials has Pfizer started in immunology this year?" "Who else is developing GLP-1 agonists?" "How many CAR-T trials are recruiting in Europe?"
Clinical Operations & Feasibility
Inform protocol design and site selection with historical benchmarks. Before launching a new trial, teams use syfrah to understand typical enrollment timelines for similar studies, identify high-performing sites, and assess geographic feasibility.
Common questions: "What's the median enrollment time for Phase 2 NASH trials?" "Which sites have the most experience with pediatric oncology?" "How competitive is patient recruitment for rare diseases in Germany?"
Medical Affairs & MSL teams
Identify and engage key opinion leaders. Syfrah maps investigators by therapeutic expertise, publication history, and collaboration networks—making it easier to find the right experts for advisory boards, speaker programs, or investigator-initiated studies.
Common questions: "Who are the leading investigators in lupus nephritis?" "Which KOLs have worked on both academic and industry trials?" "What's the collaboration network around Dr. X?"
Business Development & Licensing
Evaluate potential partners and acquisition targets. When assessing a biotech's pipeline, BD teams use syfrah to verify clinical progress, benchmark against competitors, and identify strategic fit.
Common questions: "What's the complete trial history for this company?" "How does their lead asset compare to others in development?" "Are there any partnership signals based on trial collaborations?"
What syfrah provides
Comprehensive trial database
Over 500,000 clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov, updated daily. Each trial record includes the full protocol information—study design, arms, interventions, eligibility criteria, endpoints, sites, investigators, sponsors, and (when available) results. We normalize sponsor names, map conditions to MeSH terms, and link trials to related studies.
Enriched entity profiles
Beyond raw trial data, syfrah builds profiles for sponsors, conditions, drugs, and investigators. A sponsor profile shows their complete trial portfolio, therapeutic focus areas, geographic footprint, and development trends over time. Investigator profiles include ORCID integration, publication links, and collaboration networks. Drug profiles track molecules through clinical development with ChEMBL enrichment.
Regulatory data integration
For drugs with regulatory filings, we integrate approval data from FDA and EMA. This lets you see which trial results led to approvals, track the regulatory timeline alongside clinical development, and identify drugs that succeeded or failed at the regulatory stage.
Similarity and network analysis
Find trials similar to a given study based on conditions, interventions, and study characteristics. Map collaboration networks between investigators and institutions. Identify competitors working on similar mechanisms or patient populations.
Programmatic access via API
Everything available in the web interface is also accessible through our REST API. Build custom dashboards, automate competitive monitoring, integrate trial data into your CRM or data warehouse, or power internal tools with syfrah data.
Data sources & coverage
Our primary data source is ClinicalTrials.gov, the largest clinical trial registry in the world. We sync new and updated records daily, typically within 24 hours of changes being posted to the registry.
Trial data is enriched with information from multiple sources:
- FDA & EMA — Regulatory approval data, drug labels, and approval timelines for marketed products.
- ORCID — Investigator identification and profile linking for principal investigators.
- ChEMBL — Drug mechanism data, target information, and molecular properties.
- PubMed — Publication links for trials with published results.
Known limitations
Syfrah is only as complete as its source data. A few things to keep in mind:
- Registry coverage — We currently index ClinicalTrials.gov only. Trials registered exclusively in EU CTR, ISRCTN, or regional registries are not yet included.
- Historical data — Older trials (pre-2005) often have incomplete records, particularly for site and investigator information.
- Sponsor normalization — We automatically normalize sponsor names, but some edge cases (subsidiaries, name changes, academic collaborations) may not be perfectly resolved.
- Results data — Only ~15% of trials have results posted to ClinicalTrials.gov. Many results are published only in journal articles.
Getting started
The fastest way to understand syfrah is to start using it. Here's a typical first session:
- 1
Search for a condition you know well
Start with something familiar—your lead indication, a competitor's focus area, or a therapeutic space you've worked in. This helps you calibrate the data against your existing knowledge.
- 2
Drill into a specific trial
Pick a trial you're familiar with and review the detail page. Check that the information matches what you know—protocol design, endpoints, investigators, timeline. This builds trust in the data.
- 3
Explore related entities
From a trial, navigate to the sponsor profile to see their full portfolio. Click through to investigators to understand who's leading the research. These connections are where syfrah adds value beyond raw registry data.
- 4
Try the API (if you're technical)
Generate an API key and replicate your search programmatically. The API returns the same data as the web interface, structured for integration into your tools.
How this documentation is organized
The sidebar on the left organizes documentation into two sections:
Guides
Practical how-to documentation for platform features. Start here if you want to understand how to accomplish specific tasks—searching trials, analyzing sponsors, working with investigators, and so on. Each guide focuses on a feature area with step-by-step instructions and examples.
API Reference
Technical documentation for developers. Covers authentication, available endpoints, request/response formats, error handling, and rate limits. Includes code examples in multiple languages.