IN PARTNERSHIP Virtual trials aren’t a new thing, but they
were accelerated by the pandemic, and some of the regulatory barriers around those remote trial set-ups were pragmatically looked at by the authorities to enable trials to go ahead and get patients treated.
Was there an impact on clinical trial supply chains?
Clinical trial supplies were disrupted, and certain governments banned exports in the early months of the pandemic, cancelling pending orders of comparators. Medicine shortages also occurred. Many
governments decided to widen their lists of critical medicines that were to be kept in stock, making these harder to source for clinical trials. At the same time, numerous anti-viral drugs suddenly became candidates for COVID-19 treatment, leading to restrictions on their use in research.
Other trials may have already secured their
comparator stock, but this became a concern, too. Many sponsors suddenly realised they had shelf life of the comparators, the potential for large amounts of medicine to go to waste presented a big problem.
Redistributing surplus stock If the commercial medicine is purchased in the EU and hasn’t been decommissioned, Abacus Medicine Pharma Services can help by buying it back from clients and repurposing it, thus enabling our parent company to sell the stock to pharmacy and hospital customers across Europe. This mitigates waste and enables the client
to recoup some or all the losses they might suffer from having to sit on excessive stock. It also gives more patients the opportunity to access to medicines in those markets where the costs are typically higher. We can also proactively build and recycle stock to plan on behalf of our clients using the same mechanism to help them optimise inventory levels throughout the life of a trial, all without increasing the risk of write-off of surplus or short-dated inventory. With the successful rollout of the COVID-19
vaccines, enrolment in clinical trials has already picked up. However, depending on how the virus mutates, potential changes to quarantine rules could once more have a negative impact, as could new unforeseen events such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, disruption in the sector. And even now, there may continue to be
pressure on medicine supplies. Over the past 18 months, the treatment of ongoing regular illness outside of COVID-19 has been severely reduced. As health systems start to catch up, we can foresee a scenario where there will be pressure on certain medicines that sponsors might be looking to source for their clinical trials. That could cause problems as a knock-on consequence.
A fresh approach Looking to the future, there may well be another pandemic and a new approach may be needed in the clinical trials community. But it should be one that doesn’t cast aside all that’s been achieved. There was a lot of collaboration and sharing of information that helped in the development and rollout of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. This could be left behind again as competitive drivers start to have more of an impact on how organisations behave. The future is uncertain, and the industry
must keep evolving as the situation changes. Companies need to be looking one step ahead For Abacus Medicine Pharma Services, this is important. As we move into a post-pandemic world, we’ll continue to keep our eye on the supply chain demands to make sure we’re not providing a pre-COVID service for the post- COVID environment. We’ll continue to drive forward with our
way of working, which is that every trial and sourcing project is different. We’ll continue to be inquisitive and have detailed conversations to understand where our clients have had problems in the past, then come up with solutions and back-up plans that avoid or minimise those issues. We’ll also keep challenging clients to make sure that what they think they need is best for what they’re trying to achieve.
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