Almac and Marken launch trial supply solutions

Marken’s product – called Solo – is a web tool for regulatory, inventory and operational supply chain management that is designed to control the receipt of clinical supplies and kits, dispatches, returns, warehouse movements and QA releases at the firm’s recently expanded global depot network​.

The system – which Marken claims is available 24/7 to sponsors – is compatible with multiple client-directed IXR (Interactive Reporting) systems.

Marken CEO Wes Wheeler said: “We are uniquely positioned to grow with the industry’s need for management of time critical, temperature critical and complex shipments of their clinical supplies. We are committed to providing fully validated facilities in strategic centers around the world from which clinical trials can be managed​.”

Almac​

Almac’s new tool – known as Compass – is designed to let supply managers forecast bulk product, packaging, labelling and distribution requirements based on patient usage data rather than on protocol information and recruitment projections.

The system – offered as part of Almac’s Supply Chain Management services – is being marketed as a solution for both companies needing to check the accuracy of existing forecasts as well as to sponsors that lack the internal resources to develop them.

Michelle Foust, Almac’s director of new product development, explained that the system has already demonstrated its utility in the field. “A client brought us a forecast they had generated internally. When we ran it through the system to check compliance, it immediately pointed out a simple error that would have cost the client thousands of dollars​.”

Competition​

Almac and Marken are the latest firms to stress the benefits of clinical trial supply chain management.

In February Bioclinica​ – a trial-management focused services firm – teamed up with Paragon Solutions to assess the state of forecasting in the trial sector. The results – published in July​ – suggested that many CROs and CMOs lack the ability to make accurate predictions.