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.
Many thanks for taking the time to read this blog. As always, if you found it useful and/or interesting, please share this on social media and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below.
Best Regards,
Jonathan Cordwell
Research Analyst, Healthcare Strategy
ResearchNetwork, CSC
Welcome once again to The Health Care Bear blog! This month I've been looking at the Track & Trace / Serialization market in Life Sciences. The most common and potent driver for adoption of T&T / Serialization is undoubtedly for regulatory compliance purposes. However, this is by no means the only benefit of this solution so today I'd like to take you through the various potential benefits of T&T / Serialization. If there are any I've missed then please feel free to comment below...
- Comply with regulations: OK, let's get this one out of the way! Regulations are constantly evolving all around the world and in Life Sciences, T&T can help comply with those such as the FDA mandate applicable to Manufacturers, Repackagers, Wholesale Distributors and Dispensers stating that product ownership cannot be accepted without transaction history and statements (either paper or electronic.) Unfortunately, as is this case with this one, they are frequently delayed or changed. Despite the compliance benefits of a T&T solution, the volatile nature of these regulations is pushing customers away from deploying this type of solution globally on an enterprise-wide basis. Regional vendors are making the most of this by concentrating on local regulations only whilst larger, global players face the stigma of being considered out of touch.
- Improve visibility: Serialization gives a client the ability for logistics transparency across the supply chain. Not only will this make reporting more accurate and efficient but it will also eliminate potential unseen issues such as theft. This will also enable the client to detect returns that were not originally sold to the customer to avoid fraudulent claims.
- Protect your brand: Once a client is able to identify and highlight illegal activities such as theft, counterfeiting and diversion; they can then take measures to combat this. In Life Sciences, drug quality is extremely important and so assuring that the intended product makes it all the way to the market without tampering will help protect the brand.
- Provide an integration platform: Deploying a solution which knits together other applications into an overall solution will have long term benefits. Especially given the current reluctance to deploy enterprise wide, global solutions; a serialization solution able to bring in outside components will be valuable when/if the regulatory landscapes in other regions settle down a bit.
- Control your inventory: This solution will enable the client to gain better insight into raw materials ordering. Using analytics in conjunction with T&T/Serialization will maximize storage space and streamline process scheduling.
- Improve workflow processes: The less physical handling is involved, the more productive the supply chain will be and so errors will decrease as the human element is minimized. As well as reducing errors, automation will also speed up the supply chain process considerably.
- Speed up the order-to-cash life cycle: Being able to definitively state where the goods have traveled and exactly when it was delivered and to whom will speed up the time it takes to authorize payment.
- Perfect order fulfillment: Serialization will help perfect order fulfillment by identifying incorrect orders and resolving them before delivery to the customer. This will directly impact a vendor's reputation and improve levels of customer satisfaction.
- Aid the returns process: Through reverse logistics, serialization will also help the recall, return and withdrawal processes as well as shrink/loss recovery. During the same process, the vendor will also be able to pinpoint the location and time where the issue occurred.
- Increase mobility: So your products are making their way through their life cycle, what's stopping you from moving with them? Mobile access to a track and trace solution will enable key members of your workforce to follow the product's journey whilst also on the move and if there is an issue, they are able to keep track of what's going on in real time and correct it on the go.
I'm sure I've only scratched the surface with these benefits so if you have any other suggestions of the potential benefits of a Track-and-Trace / Serialization solution, let me know down in the comment section below.
Best Regards,
Jonathan Cordwell
Research Analyst, Healthcare Strategy
ResearchNetwork, CSC
