Advancing clinical trials with proven supply chain solutions
Helping drug developers reduce risk and maintain continuity through efficient, resilient supply chain services.
Keeping clinical trials moving forward
Drug developers worldwide are under pressure to keep their clinical trials on track—navigating global regulations, proactively managing risks, and safeguarding product integrity, all while meeting critical milestones. The right supply chain partner is essential to avoiding costly delays that may compromise the success of your research study.
Thermo Fisher Scientific provides flexible, end-to-end clinical trial supply chain services designed to address these challenges head-on. Our global network offers full-program support—from cold chain management to ancillary material sourcing, logistics, and secure warehousing—so you can advance through each phase with confidence.
One partner for sponsors of all sizes
Worldwide reach
Support across the Americas (54%), EMEA (26%), and Asia-Pacific (19%).
Helping drug developers navigate regulatory requirements across regions to safely bring their products to patients worldwide.
Proven expertise
Assisted with 620 dossiers (writing and review) for 241 products (2020–2024).
Extensive experience preparing and reviewing clear and compelling dossiers to support hundreds of product approvals.
Regulatory success
A leading CDMO: 34 non-NME NDA approvals secured between 2015 and 2024.
We receive more contracts for non-NME DNA approvals than any other CDMO—you can trust us to take care of your program.
Support across the Americas (54%), EMEA (26%), and Asia-Pacific (19%).
Helping drug developers navigate regulatory requirements across regions to safely bring their products to patients worldwide.
Assisted with 620 dossiers (writing and review) for 241 products (2020–2024).
Extensive experience preparing and reviewing clear and compelling dossiers to support hundreds of product approvals.
A leading CDMO: 34 non-NME NDA approvals secured between 2015 and 2024.
We receive more contracts for non-NME DNA approvals than any other CDMO—you can trust us to take care of your program.
Supply chain risk management (SCRM) process: Identify, Quantify, Mitigate
We have developed an iterative process, broken down into proactive and reactive steps, to balance the risk and cost of clinical supply chain management. Here's how it works.
Proactive
- Sole sources, single sources, regulated, long lead-time items, quality, delivery issues
- Financial, EH&S, cyber, socioeconomic
- Impact of natural disasters
Reactive
- Track and monitor suppliers for events that could affect supply chain
Proactive
- Assess risks we can mitigate
- Prioritize actions to make the biggest impacts to risk reduction
- Determine which risks can be addressed
Reactive
- Follow standard event management playbook with clear roles and responsibilities and de-escalation process
Proactive
- Document mitigation levers
- Local, division, group, or enterprise-level management
- Collaborate to effectively manage
- Continuous improvement
Reactive
- Post-incident review process and follow-up actions
The Patheon pharma services team is committed to delivering continuous improvement, clear communication, and regular status updates to all our customers. We have experienced no major service disruptions during the pandemic. To better support the move to virtual, we are accelerating direct-to-patient and site-to-patient programs, as well as digital enablement of core processes such as virtual audits and site visits.
Supply chain and speed to market solutions and capabilities
Integrity, efficiency, and risk mitigation are the cornerstones of our approach to transportation, allowing us to deliver your shipments on time, in full, and at the required temperature.
Supported by our global network of quality-approved providers we deliver on product security and industry compliance while optimizing distribution and transportation processes. Our Good Distribution Practice (GDP)-compliant services span the entire product development lifecycle, from bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients and clinical trials materials to product commercialization samples and finished goods.
Flexible modes and service levels include:
- Air: Next Flight Out (NFO), time specific same day, overnight, second day, third day, or deferred service using commercial and chartered services
- Ground: Same day, overnight, second day, third day, or deferred service using truckload (TL) and less than truckload (LTL) services
- Parcel: Time specific same day, overnight, second day, third day, or deferred service commercial and residential delivery
- Water: Full container load (FCL) and less than container load (LCL)
We are passionate about our commitment to quality and service excellence, constantly working to streamline and improve processes using our corporate practical process improvement (PPI) methodology. Our client support is characterized by personalized service, 24/7 support, standard operating procedures (SOPs), client-specific work instructions, comprehensive quality systems and maintenance of industry-standard certifications:
- GDP Certified
- Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) Certified
- International Air Transport Association (IATA) Accredited Cargo Agent
- Transportation Security Administration (TSA)-Certified Indirect Air Carrier
- US Department of Transportation (DOT) Registered Hazmat Carrier
- World Cargo Alliancec (WCA) First Member and Pharma Member
Helpful resources
With growing pipelines of cell and gene therapies and biosimilars, the importance of a temperature-controlled supply chain has never been greater. Maintaining cold chain product integrity across the entire supply chain demands end-to-end temperature management and rigorous processes that strictly conform to regulatory guidelines.
We rely on global best practices, including optimal approaches for packaging, storage, and transportation, including:
- Managing temperature-controlled shipments in multiple ways, from ambient and controlled room temperature (CRT) to refrigerated (2°C to 8°C), frozen (-20°C), dry ice (-80°C), and ultracold liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling
- Handling transportation of all categories of hazardous materials, including radioactive substances in limited quantities
- Working directly with many of the leading manufacturers in temperature-controlled packaging, shipping, and cooling technologies to design a best-fit solution for each client
- Partnering with vendors to design unique storage or transport shippers whenever specialized packaging is required due to size, duration, destination, and other factors
- Innovations in cold chain management and distribution: Track and trace
- Commercial packaging for cell and gene therapies
Learn more about our clinical cold and ultracold chain logistics services.
There are significant, non-negotiable requirements for working with pharmaceutical products and materials—everything from temperature management to protect product integrity, mandated licenses and certifications, systems and processes that conform to regulatory guidelines, and end-to-end security of the supply chain.
As your strategic partner, we have the experience and expertise to serve your warehousing and distribution needs with outstanding accuracy, security, and efficiency, while meeting all regulatory and other requirements.
- Highly secure and fully climate-controlled distribution centers
- Customized fulfillment and distribution programs—no one-size fits-all
- Capacity and expertise to manage the challenges of high-risk, high-value products
- Industry leader for sample delivery, sending materials direct to practitioners and to pharmaceutical representatives
- Comprehensive sample compliance services
Helpful resources