Pharmaceutical contract services round-up
Outsourcing-Pharma takes a look at recent news involving Movianto,
PDI, inVentiv Health and Exel.
Wyeth has chosen to renew an ongoing and exclusive third party logistics (3PL) contract it had with Movianto after putting it back out to tender. The relationship involves Wyeth-owned Wyeth Lederle Pharma and Movianto's subsidiary in Austria, Sanova Pharma for the storage, transport and distribution of ambient and cold chain drugs in Austria, as well as additional services such as order processing. The Movianto Group is already providing logistics services for other Wyeth subsidiaries in Europe, particularly for the chilled distribution of vaccines. In February the 3PL heavy more than doubled its pharmaceutical storage capacity at two of its European sites with the construction of two new warehouses, in answer to increased demand. Contract sales organisation PDI has scored a gig to recruit up to 60 specialty representatives and five managers for a global healthcare products firm by the end of the second quarter in an undisclosed deal. The news will provide some light relief for the US firm who has struggled financially of late and suffered a series of contract losses from major drug firms including its largest clients GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca. In other news, inVentiv Health has announced that it has consolidated its Pharmaceutical Resource Solutions (PRS) unit (The Franklin Group) with its Commercial Services arm under the new front of PRS Franklin. The combined group will provide healthcare consulting, including the design and management of patient services such as patient assistance programs; as well as sampling and regulatory compliance services for purposes including prescription and controlled substance sample tracking, direct-to-physician sample programs. "Combining our sampling and regulatory compliance services into one group…allows us to create more comprehensive programs for clients and assist our customers in a more focused way," said Robert Melillo, PRS Franklin vice president and managing director. Meanwhile, US 3PL provider Exel has announced that it is now offering class II narcotics storage, packaging and order fulfilment after the installation of a newly constructed, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-certified pharmaceutical vault. As part of its packaging offering the firm said it also includes radiofrequency identification (RFID) label application and retailer-compliant shipment preparation, and will have the ability to support electronic DEA 222 forms. In addition Exel is installing security equipment such as biometric hand readers in the vault: "Security is paramount in facilities such as these," said Scott Cubbler, Exel's vice president of Life Sciences Operations. "Customers have told us that high-capacity, high-security Class II vaults are hard to come by in the northeast [US] corridor."
