While working on projects at two of Australia’s premier research Facilities we have observed an interesting trend in the way that the development of new drugs, from inception to clinical trials will affect the logistics of their delivery to market.
This results from the ever-greater complexity of the new drugs in development, especially in the oncology area as new drugs based on human, animal, plant sources and synthesised from virus structures are increasing the frequency of movements.
The development cost of a clinical trial drug is now averaging about $1.2B per drug trial.
The supply chain will soon be demanding a secure chain of custody, and thus the quality and security of delivery is becoming more critical. Data management is now having to be extend from manufacturing to packaging, transport and end-user handling.
We are currently looking at IT and materials handling innovation to enable this to occur.
Is there anything else that needs attention? We would be very interested in your comments... ...