Clinical Research Data for AI Training: What Research Companies Can (and Can't) License
By Andrew Smart, founder of MON$TER · About
Clinical research organizations, trial-management software companies and other healthcare research businesses run on years of operational history: how studies were set up, how sites performed, how long each step took and where things went wrong. AI teams building research copilots and operations tools want real examples like these, and very little of it exists on the public web.
What buyers usually look for
- Study operations data: timelines, milestones, delays and how they were resolved
- Site and workflow performance, measured as steps and outcomes, not people
- De-identified, aggregated activity from research software (how teams actually use the tools)
- Document and process workflows with identifying details removed
What stays out
Patient-level health information is the line. Anything that could identify a trial participant or patient must be removed or properly de-identified before a buyer ever sees it, and health data is covered by strict privacy rules (such as HIPAA in the US) plus your own sponsor, site and customer contracts. Many deals avoid patient data entirely and license only operational data. This is general information, not legal advice — talk to your own counsel and compliance team. See what counts as PII and is it legal to sell business data to AI?
What it can pay
Published MON$TER ranges: an exclusive one-time sale typically lands at $50K-$1M, and a non-exclusive recurring license typically runs $300K-$3M per year. No amount is guaranteed and not every company qualifies. Compare the two in recurring vs. one-time deals.
How to start
List the data you collect and how many years of history you have, confirm your contracts allow licensing, and get a no-cost review. Buyers see a description of the dataset first, not your raw data. Start at Business Data or try the data value calculator.