Bringing innovative therapies to the market involves more than sound science. It requires operational excellence in every step of the clinical trial journey to raise the probability of success.
Every clinical trial is unique. From protocol to therapeutic specialty to patient nativity, each trial has specific and unique needs. However, every clinical trial shares a common characteristic: the dependency on well planned processes to deliver on-time and on-budget studies.
At Ancillare, we develop leading global programs to manage the ancillary supplies that are critical to how far a clinical trial can progress and how fast it gets there.
Like IPs, Ancillary Delays Derail Clinical Research
Ancillare–the leader in ancillary supplies and equipment management programs–calculates that Sponsors could achieve over 30% in cost savings by optimizing how they manage their trial’s ancillaries.
Sponsors spend a lot of energy and resources coordinating the efficient sourcing and regulatory requirements of the clinical side of the trial.
However, the truth of trials is that both a biosimilar and a portable refrigerator can bring a clinical trial to a halt. And send budgets and timelines spiraling.
Even minor oversights in ancillary supplies can prevent or delay revolutionary therapies from reaching the patients they were developed to help.
Trials truly built to accelerate research and expand global treatment delivery demand expert management of every detail of the trial process. And the most significant of the overlooked details is often ancillary supplies and equipment.
There Are No Small Parts in Clinical Trials
Clinical trials require the alignment of many moving parts. If one of them stops, two things tend to happen: timelines extend and costs rise.
Ancillary supplies and equipment programs provide an excellent illustration of how Sponsors can lose time and money by leaving some components of their trials unattended, or poorly planned and managed.
Supply Chain Gaps Cost Sponsors Millions
Ancillaries–every non-drug item needed to execute a trial–represent about 4.2% of a clinical trial’s cost. On average that means anywhere from $168k-$840k at the outset of the trial. May not sound like a significant upfront line item, but a lack of management and subsequent delays cost upwards of $600k/per day (with estimates as high as $8MM).
Managing ancillaries requires skills that demand extraordinary levels of competence in logistical coordination, sourcing, transnational relationships, risk and project management.
Sponsors and CROs rightly spend the majority of their supply chain focus on the IP itself. But without a specialized skill set around ancillaries and equipment, they end up paying higher prices for ancillary items and incurring increased freight, storage, reclamation, and disposition expenses. Compounded upon that is the constant juggling of regulatory and coordination intricacies that require import/export expertise and on-the-ground experience in the countries and at the sites where trials are being conducted.
Together, these gaps and inefficiencies lead to delays, significant increases in goods and equipment costs, and additional management fees to handle rush issues. Sponsors and CROs can quickly see budgets and timelines spiral out of control.
Prevention’s Power: Reach Further and Research Faster
Ancillare has dedicated the last 17 years to making clinical trials happen in over 100 countries – collaborating with Sponsors to address and relieve their unique pain points while developing tailored plans that acknowledge prevention as the best medicine.
Ancillare’s work is grounded in partnership. Not just with the Sponsors who trust us with their trials’ ancillary supply and equipment programs, but also across the globe and throughout our extensive strategic depot network. The difference maker for Sponsors and CROs alike is our hands-on approach in both the planning and the operational execution of their programs.
Our full service partnerships include:
- Protocol analysis to anticipate supply and equipment needs.
- Medical consulting to mitigate risk of item availability and/or regulatory issues.
- Single-source model with 22 strategic global depots.
- Import/export management facilitating trials’ requisitions.
- Returns, reclamation, and disposition services to support closeout requirements.
Ancillary supply and equipment programs are a strategic investment, not an expense. Taking a patchwork, ad hoc approach, or figuring things out along the way, can and will result in hidden costs and vital days lost for patients’ access to life-improving treatments.
Schedule a consultation today, and let’s keep your research moving forward.