The Russia depot will be located within an existing GxP-compliant storage facility near the airport in Moscow. The facility will be operated by local staff trained on Marken’s global procedures and the company’s inventory system, which provides round-the-clock access and monitoring of clients’ global supplies and distribution status.
CEO Wes Wheeler told Outsourcing-Pharma.com, “We’ve been in Russia for 10 years and we collect and service from 80 cities there, with an established transport network and existing clients.”
The transportation network is key for companies looking to send clinical trial supplies outbound to trial sites in Eastern Europe, Wheeler said.
He added that he will soon appoint a general manager for the company’s Eastern European operations as the company looks to make a bigger, more formal push into the region.
“We intend to form a legal entity in Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
Regional partnership
Marken is also forming a partnership with IMP Logistics, which offers similar warehousing and logistical support for trials in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. “Russia is still in the top five or six countries to conduct clinical trials, so client demand is expected to remain high.”
The Russia site will be integrated into a network of depots including ones that already are in China, Singapore, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, and the US.
Wheeler added that Marken is “going live with at least two or three more depots by the end of the year.”
The depots are designed for all clinical materials, and are suited for temperature-controlled, time sensitive products which are emerging in a number of pharma company pipelines.