I have recently been looking at the Life Sciences supply chain competitive landscape and in particular, a vendor called TraceLink. TraceLink labels itself as 'the world's largest track and trace network for connecting the Life Sciences supply chain and eliminating counterfeit drugs from the global marketplace'. It has also seen a few interesting developments as of late so here's a top 5 countdown along with my independent analysis, enjoy:
- Targetting the Brazilian market: TraceLink recently formed an alliance with Brazilian based pharma IT services and automation specialist, SPI. The motivation behind this move was to assist life sciences clients in meeting requirements for track-and-trace due in December 2015. Under these new regulations, life sciences organizations are required to have serialized and tracked three batches of product through the supply chain. This will then become mandatory for all pharmaceuticals one year later. TraceLink will benefit from early entry into the market, focusing on this regulation, but will draw attention from competitors eagerly watching how the market situation develops.
- Onboarding industry expertise: In July, TraceLink announced that it had brought three industry experts into its management team: Michael Ventura (Director, Industry Solutions) from GSK, Elizabeth Waldorf (Director, Global Traceability) from AMGEN and Marcel Zutter (Senior Implementation Program Manager, EMEA) from Abbott. Bringing in senior level management with decades worth of expertise at reputable Life Sciences organizations such as these only further validates TraceLink's commitment to the industry and aligns its strategy with market demand.
- Partnership with the Yankee Alliance: Very recently, TraceLink launched the Yankee Alliance Preferred Partner Program. This enables more than 12,000 Yankee Alliance member pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, care facilities and physician practices to take advantage of reduced rates of its Product Track software in order to comply with the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA.) It makes sense for an organization to adopt the industry standard solution and although interoperable tracking software may not be a priority right now, it may facilitate some trend analysis in the near future to determine best practices for supply chain optimization.
- Strong Q2 2015 results: Last month, TraceLink announced its Q2 results for 2015 and one of the highlights was that it had added 50 new customers within the quarter, resulting in a 76% increase in quarterly sales bookings and a 128% increase in year-over-year bookings. TraceLink also recorded a 178% year-over-year staff increase in Q2, exhibiting its growth potential. Growth in sales is primarily down to regulatory compliance pressures and although the full list of clients is not publically available, their expansion into Brazil is a definite contributor to these impressive figures.
- Nexus '15: TraceLink will be holding a track-and-trace event later this month to bring together experts and leaders from various disciplines to discuss track-and-trace strategies. Two major themes emerge from this announcement as TraceLink look to delve into how the Internet of Things (IoT) and Mobility will impact regulatory compliance. It will be interesting to see how TraceLink will prepare and react to the evolving regulatory landscape as new workflow processes become standard.
Best Regards,
Jonathan Cordwell
Research Analyst, Healthcare Strategy
ResearchNetwork, CSC
