Pharma Solutions – Supply Chains and Sourcing Comparators Part 1

For a company working with numerous pharma solutions, it is important to understand the biggest challenges on the horizon so that you can prepare yourself and your business and allocate the necessary resources to tackling any issues. Pharma IQ has done some significant research into the area of sourcing comparators for trials, and found that supply chains are still the big issue. This report delves further into these findings.

For other reports on pharma solutions please visit our resource centre. You can also find a great deal of knowledge from our webinars, whitepapers and articles on Pharma IQ.

With healthcare's growing emphasis on the comparative effectiveness of new drugs in relation to what is already available, recent times have brought forth an expectation for developers to prove additional benefits at the clinical trial stage. But with more and more studies being conducted on a global scale, the process of sourcing comparators is fraught with difficulty. According to a poll conducted by Pharma IQ, in preparation for the Clinical Trial Supply Europe event in Switzerland which was held earlier in the year, complex supply chains are still the biggest challenge for drug developers trying to source comparators for clinical trials. Generally speaking, there are two main issues holding back the supply of comparator drugs – security and time delays.

Comparator supply concerns

Based on responses from key members from the clinical trial supply field, Pharma IQ research indicates that cost remains the main difficulty for 22.2 per cent when sourcing comparators. And while finding the right partner is seen as the key concern by 27.8 per cent, the majority of respondents, more than 61 per cent, cited supply chain complexities as their biggest challenge.

Supply chain security

It is widely accepted that the two main difficulties hindering supply of trial comparators are supply chain security and the delays that often arise when restocking comparator supplies throughout the study. The issue of security threats are regretfully something with which drug companies have had to increasingly be wary of in recent decades.

To read the other parts of this report, please visit our pharma solutions resource centre.

For the latest reports and information from Pharma IQ, please sign up to our newsletters or visit our online content hub.