Over the last decade, clinical drug research has spanned the globe. Even a small biotech with a handful of employees might wind up testing a drug in the Ukraine, or
somewhere in Latin America. Among the pharma giants, with multibillion-dollar R&D divisions that operate around the world, an experimental therapeutic may be tested in dozens of clinical sites in hard-to-reach places. And that requires getting some fragile drug supplies through customs and on to the sites in a carefully controlled environment.
Any break in the supply chain, for even a few minutes, could spell disaster for studies that gobble up multimillion-dollar budgets.
In a deep dive, FiercePharma's Tracy Staton and I have explored how the globalization trend has been playing out. What new technologies and best practices are helping to protect the supply chain? How do you identify potential challenges and circumvent them while protecting the therapeutics? And when is it a good idea to keep direct control of the product, or hand it over to an outside group?
At the end of the day, every experimental therapy has a team of researchers behind it willing to stake their careers on the development program. Getting supply-chain management right is an essential part of handling the risks involved in that gamble. Click here to download the eBook >> -- John Carroll, Editor-in-Chief. Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.