Clinical trials are a critical phase in a long and complex drug development lifecycle. Pharma companies need an efficient supply chain with an effective IT infrastructure and ecosystem that can accurately manage the demand-supply and forecasting of drugs to patient sites while ensuring compliance with regulations and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to meet their clinical trial goals.   

Integration of ICSM with IRT and CTM is going to be a gamechanger for the Pharma Companies in managing their clinical supplies efficiently. 

Interactive Response Technology (IRT) systems play a crucial role in automating the clinical trial business processes.  IRT system integrated with Clinical trial Management (CTM) provides trials with essential software services such as patient enrolment, randomization, inventory management, supply, and resupply automation to depots and sites, and drug dispensing.  

This integrated system makes managing patient interactions simple and supports clinical drug supplies during the trials and performs a range of essential functions for drug depots, sponsors, and investigative sites. The system can be set up quickly and altered instantaneously when needed. This can reduce the trial timeline by weeks.   

Adding to that, ICSM – Intelligent Clinical Supply Management is an advanced solution that helps Lifesciences organizations to improve and automate the supply process of clinical trial materials and gain increased visibility to the status of clinical supplies worldwide. It facilitates demand forecasting, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and shipment of clinical trial supplies, achieving a competitive edge through faster time to market.  

What are the benefits? 

ICSM with the integration of the IRT/IWRS solution improves control of the overall project cycle for clinical trial management including logistics, scheduling, and costing for the end-to-end clinical trial supply chain. 

✓ Demand Supply and Forecasting – Calculate enrollments or demand for different delivery unit types at each trial site 

✓ Randomization – Create and manage randomizing lists with reliable and real-time access to unblinded data when required with absolute control over the implementation of study design changes.  

✓ Fast cycle times – Reduction in cycle times for the clinical trial supply chain, supporting quick adaptation to change 

✓ Improved accuracy – Integrated processes to reduce errors and delays; accurate planning to reduce inventory excesses 

✓ Greater flexibility – Quick and flexible responses to future trends and new types of clinical trials with more complex trial design, with a scalable architecture that accommodates multiple clinical supply models in one system  

✓ Increased collaboration – Stakeholders for clinical trial supply management being able to work together, from suppliers to life sciences companies to logistics providers to clinical sites 

✓ Improved efficiency – Processes simplified and automated, eliminating manual processes, reducing complexity, and providing system guidance 

This April, SAP is launching ICSM – Intelligent Clinical Supply Management, the next-generation Clinical Supply Management Solution. SAP ICSM is the latest industry-standard to manage the clinical trial supply chain built on SAP’s Business Technology Platform and powered by SAP S/4HANA. The ecosystem will be robust and flexible at the same time and offer leading capabilities, including integration with partners and IRT providers using industry standards. SyMetric is thrilled to be a strategic partner for ICSM with SAP and Tenthpin in launching a robust Eco-System that majorly impacts the Digital Transformation in the Life Sciences R&D space. 

SyMetric offers a complete cloud solution to manage clinical trials. The combination of ICSM – Intelligent Clinical Supply Management with the SyMetric cloud-based suite of applications for clinical trials (CTMS, EDC, Medical Coding, IRT/IWRS, and ePRO*) and Trial Analytics product provides a robust solution to intuitively manage clinical supplies in drug development.  

_{SyMetric ePRO* is in the pipeline}