‍Dual appointment reflects PicnicResearch’s deepening commitment to delivering regulatory-grade evidence generation

SAN FRANCISCO — JUNE 3, 2026 — PicnicResearch, a product line of PicnicAI, today announced that Dan Drozd, MD, MSc, has been appointed chief medical and scientific officer (CMSO), expanding his existing responsibilities as chief medical officer to formally encompass the scientific strategy and standards that govern PicnicResearch's evidence generation platform. The appointment underscores PicnicResearch’s commitment to uncompromising research rigor as it deepens its capabilities across both interventional and non-interventional clinical research.

Drozd joined PicnicResearch more than six years ago and has been instrumental in building the scientific and clinical infrastructure behind PicnicResearch. He leads a multidisciplinary team of biostatisticians, epidemiologists, clinical data scientists, and clinicians who design and execute studies that meet the evidentiary standards regulators expect and that sponsors can confidently act on.

"Innovation only matters if the science behind it is sound," said Luna Federici, president and chief operating officer, PicnicAI. "Dan's expanded role reflects our commitment to pushing the field forward without sacrificing rigor. He is central to the new models we're building for how clinical evidence gets generated, including ThumbPrint and our research patient pool, which transforms one-time trial relationships into a durable, reusable research asset."

Drozd brings a rare combination of clinical, epidemiological, and technical expertise to this role. He trained at UCSF in internal medicine, completed an infectious disease fellowship at the University of Washington, and holds an MSc in epidemiology with a focus on clinical research. He is board-certified in both internal medicine and infectious disease. Before joining the company, he held senior investigator and clinical informaticist roles at UW Medicine, where he led NIH-funded research into clinical outcomes in HIV infection, and published extensively on clinical epidemiology and health services research.

“Too many studies aren't designed to demonstrate the credibility to make clinical decisions," said Drozd. "What we're building is an evidence generation platform where the scientific standards are baked into how we work. That means the right study designs, the right endpoints, and the right analytical choices are made by people who've spent their careers doing exactly this."

PicnicResearch's scientific delivery team works hand-in-hand with sponsors from study design through final data deliveries. Their collective experience spans regulatory submissions, label expansion dossiers, and academic-grade research. 

Drozd’s expanded remit is part of PicnicAI’s broader strategy, articulated in its recent rebrand, to build intelligence that accelerates human health, and to ensure that the evidence generated through PicnicResearch reflects the rigor the field increasingly requires.

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About PicnicAI 

PicnicAI builds intelligence to accelerate human health. The company deploys AI into the complexity of care delivery and clinical research, powering two product lines: PicnicHealth and PicnicResearch. PicnicHealth helps patients navigate fragmented care to get to treatment that's right for them. PicnicResearch makes clinical research faster, more cost-effective, and more reliable to unlock an abundance of new treatments for patients. Together, they represent where we believe we can do the most to help AI accelerate human health. Learn more at picnic.ai.

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