According to a 2015 Visiongain report, a greater amount of medicinal products require a temperature-controlled supply chain, including approximately 75% of biological drugs, 10 to 15% of small molecule therapies, and 100% of vaccines.
Previously, investigational sites had to download data from a temperature logger after shipment was received in order to find out if a drug’s temperature had been compromised.
“With Parexel’s Active Tracking service, we can monitor IMPs from packaging at our depots through transit to clinical trial sites, in near real-time, and make that that data immediately available into our RTSM and warehouse management system,” Sanjay Vyas, Corporate Vice President, Clinical Trial Supplies and Logistics, Parexel, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.
“This innovation in clinical supply chain management allows us to quickly respond to any temperature deviations, proactively triggering an alternative shipment immediately,” he added.
Vyas explained that this helps reduce safety risks for patients as well as manufacturing and shipment costs for clients. “It also can reduce the temperature monitoring and reporting burden from the investigator sites and can help ensure a site does not lose patients due to such deviations,” he said.
The new service is supported by Parexel’s Clinical Trial Supply and Logistics global depot and service network, and uses supply chain monitoring technology in conjunction with the company’s ClinPhone® RTSM interactive response technology (IRT).