According to the supply chain organization, new providers have been qualified in the United States, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Peru and Brazil.
The new investment comes on the heels of changes made in Mexico, Taiwan, Japan and China, in 2015.
Additionally, the company has increased warehouse and storage capacity in Frankfurt, Brussels, and Zurich, and has completed its operations consolidation at John F. Kennedy airport in January.
The company explained that the increased capacity, both in providers and facilities, is to prepare for a “rapid increase” in volume and shipment complexity expected in the coming months.
According to recent data from VisionGain, the clinical cold chain logistics market was $1.56bn in 2015 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.1% through 2019.
This growth is specifically being driven by biologic drugs, of which nearly three-fourths are temperature controlled – and nearly one third of all drugs in development are associated with biologic material.
"The market is growing and we are growing with it,” added Wes Wheeler, Marken's CEO. “The rapid increase in the use of biologic drug and temperature-sensitive products, cell and gene therapies and direct to patient logistic demands from clients are providing us a unique opportunity to qualify new service providers and enforce our stringent GDP requirements on our network.”