Clinical trials driving consolidation in IMP distribution and logistics industry, says PCI
The new facility located in Rockford, Illinois, opened its doors this month offering 97,000 sq ft of expansive storage for investigational supplies at controlled room temperature, as well as cold chain storage capacity at 2-8°C, -20°C, and -80°C.
The news signals the latest expansion by PCI, the healthcare packaging and logistics offshoot of Frazier Healthcare, following the acquisitions of distribution firm Biotec Services in September and Welsh contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Penn Pharma in July, and – according to SVP of Global Clinical Services Bob Misher – boosts the firm’s full scale clinical-to-commercial pipeline of services.
“PCI continues to expand its service offering to become a full service drug development partner to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,” he told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.
“Part of that service offering is extensive expertise and capability around global logistics for clinical trials and has been an area of investment due to growth in this segment of the market.”
Misher also told us the logistics industry for healthcare is evolving, being led by the growth of services to support investigational medicinal product (IMPs). “The management of the clinical supply chain has become one of the most important factors of any clinical trial, especially with Cold Chain products,” he said, with correct management “critical” to the success of each individual trial.
“Global logistics is highly complex and does require scale. More and more we are supporting investigational studies being executed in the element of Cold Chain,” he continued, adding this rising demand requires capital investment to offer extensive capacity and capability.
Therefore, “further consolidation in the industry is inevitable as smaller organizations will have difficulty managing the expanding global supply chain and its requirements.”
