Comparator Drug Sourcing
Market, Supplier, Risk and
Competitive Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

The global market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 7-7.5 percent between 2020 and 2025

• 2020 market value stood up to $ 0.96 billion
• Emerging countries in Eastern Europe and Asia pacific have been evolving in providing comparators and clinical trialsupplies which can cater to the client needs across globe. Sourcing from emerging countries provide value for the productat better pricing
• At the same time global players are reaching small markets by expanding their network with distributors/logistics playerswho can deliver to regions with fewer supply base.

Impact of COVID-19 on Comparator Sourcing 

While COVID-19 outbreak has greatly impacted trial supply value chain from pre-clinical until data analysis, one of the main reasons for huge impact is lack of demand forecast and feasibility planning. In the future, pharma companies can adopt collaborative approach for procurement of trial supplies and have a diversified supplier base

• Reliance on single global player is reducing owing to the pandemic and pharma is now looking for diversified local players as well to minimize logistic and supply disruptions

Digitization in procurement

• Innovations in the trial supply chain through innovative e-commerce platforms using artificial intelligence is revolutionizing this space where delivery to various sites is possible through these platforms
• These platforms also enable to connect with various suppliers for a particular trial supply including comparators and evaluate the right supplier

Import of API and logistics

• Given the virus outbreak, logistics of trial supplies has taken a big hit. India has restricted export of 26 active ingredients, which is about 10 percent of all drug exports from India.

Consolidated base for trial supplies

• There is a heavy reliance on the global suppliers for trial supplies, given that they have centralized inventory management and platform to manage workflow.

Market Trends

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for automation, but also has resulted in 5-10 percent dip in the industry. This may be due to industries working with limited workforce

Use of IRT/RTSM

• To improve efficiency in clinical trial processes, to save valuable resources, pharma is automating clinical trial supplies process including sourcing of comparators that includes adopting new technologies in packaging and labelling, printing, use of IRT and RTSM and integrating the solutions for efficient clinical operations. Industry is moving to Integrate IRT systems with EDC to enhance visibility in clinical operations and flow of clinical supply
• IRT provides access to patient data and on time delivery of drugs to the patient, which increases the efficiency of trial and reduces the cost to trial (reduces overages).
• Integrating IRT with real-time monitoring devices will increase the flexibility and make it easy for investigators to monitor patients in remote location.
• Suppliers are actively moving to adopt digital data collection from paper based process.

AI & Block Chain Technology

Applying AI to comparator sourcing will increase the operational efficiency and reduces the trial cost by reducing the overages of sourcing

• A clinical supply chain management company developed logistics software platform that uses EDC and IRT to actively monitor clinical supply consumption, patient timelines and supply kit expiration
• Block Chain is being implemented in pharma procurement supply chain financial services platform to improve efficiency, transparency, and financial operations
• In Africa, mass serialization and block chain tech(assigning an ID for a product and saving as an asset in the block chain) is being adapted to reduce counterfeit and illegal supply of drugs