Forming one of three worldwide hubs, mdgroup’s, Horreum distribution centre, and was named after the Latin horrea or storage warehouses. It will provide sponsors across Europe with clinical trial supply procurement, storage, logistics and delivery.
The company says it fits with its clinical services including mobile home health services and seacolehealth healthcare professional services as part of an integrated approach to hybrid and decentralized clinical trials (DCT). mdgroup says this will significantly reduce administrative burden on sites and sponsors while protecting data quality, participant safety and regulatory compliance.
One of the biggest challenges facing sponsors hoping to embrace the benefits of hybrid and DCTs is managing logistics and distribution. The model relies on having the right people with the right equipment in the right place at the right time. Failure on any of these elements threatens data quality, patient safety, and regulatory compliance.
Where a range of companies are responsible for fulfilling separate functions, such as home health, central laboratory processing, equipment supplies or delivery, this patchwork of moving parts for sponsors to monitor and manage can create not only huge administrative burden, but also potential errors, compromising the trial outcome.
Tarquin Scadding-Hunt, mdgroup CEO, said: “Horreum ensures seamless service and guarantees logistical support between patients, home health, sites, equipment suppliers, central laboratories, and couriers. It connects the entire logistical network, removing the safety, data quality, and compliance challenges that can exist between providers, and eradicating the huge administrative burden on sponsors.
“For example, when the protocol calls for a patient welcome pack to be printed and delivered before day one, and a blood pressure reading to be taken on day five, mdgroup can deliver on all fronts, from a single brief. We work with couriers who are well versed in the rules and regulations of clinical trials and are dedicated to our mission of crating remarkable experiences for our patients. When there’s a last-minute change of plan, open communication channels within our departments allow us to adapt quickly.”
The horreum network services include clinical trial consumables and equipment procurement, storage, and distribution, to ensure all home health staff have the consumables and tools they need for each visit. Another service provided is clinical trial supplies logistics management, including medical tool calibration and equipment cleaning, disposal, and quarantining, laboratory kit assembly, storage, and management and patient pack printing and delivery.
The opening of mdgroup’s Amsterdam Horreum medical distribution centre is the third hub in the global Horreum network, following the opening of facilities in both Durham, North Carolina, USA, and Bracknell, Berkshire, UK, since 2020.
