The life sciences landscape is witnessing a transformational shift both in terms of business and technology. In the past, clinical trials that are important from a drug development perspective would consume huge time for completion in phases, and hence led to increase in lead time for life saving drugs to move “from the bench to the bedside.”
Infosys (INFY, Financial), the global technology honcho, was quick in realizing this requirement of reducing the lead time for essential drugs reaching the market. Infosys has always enabled clients spread over 30 countries to stay ahead of emerging market trends and to outpace competition. This technology expert has recently launched a cloud-based solution for Clinical Trial Supply Management (CTSM) that could accelerate the clinical trial process minimizing the lead time for drug development by 10% to 15%. Let’s have a quick peep at the new development that Infosys has introduced in the life sciences domain.
The CTSM Technology
The CTSM has been designed to improve the productivity from the drug development process, ensuring timely supply of drugs to patients. This revolutionary concept does mark the next step in the evolution of enterprise management systems in the field of life sciences.
Infosys earlier launched the on-premise version of this CTSM technology of Lodestone – the CTSM Add-On Suite 2.2 software package. The technology ownership got transferred to Infosys when it acquired Lodestone in 2012. This version aids in managing clinical trial processes successfully from drug substance manufacturing till clinical site delivery for a number of large pharmaceutical companies across the U.S. and Europe.
Just a few days back, Infosys launched the upgraded version of this SAP technology which will serve the mid-sized pharmaceutical companies generating less than $5 billion revenue. Thus, the company seems inclined to further expand its client base by launching this version as life sciences make for nearly 5% of Infosys’s revenue.
The senior vice president and Head of Life science of Infosys, Manish Tandon, explains the cloud version in these words: “The new cloud-based version of our CTSM solution helps life sciences enterprises gain critical competitive advantages through cost savings and productivity gains via efficient management of their clinical trial supply chains. It is a solution that benefits from our experience in the sector, leveraging the power of SAP technology, and delivered through a cloud-based service.”
This newer version is expected to improve collaboration between pharmaceutical majors and contract research organizations (CROs). It could shorten the clinical trial process by around 10% and benefit pharma companies, urging to diminish their expenditure on this process by decreasing their operating costs by 30%-40%.
Major Highlights of the New Version
The two main takeaways from this cloud-based version of Infosys are provided below as pointers:
Enhancing the Value Chain
The new cloud-based version of the CTSM solution offers greater visibility across the clinical trial supply chain. It allows higher efficiency in terms of manufacturing and warehousing, while ensuring compliance to the stringent standards. For example, companies will be able to respond faster to changes in demand based on actual enrollment and patient turnaround during trials.
Cost Saving
The solution integrates easily with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and helps in eliminating huge investment on expensive infrastructure buildup for clinical trial management by pharma and biotech companies. This software program solution, available on pay-per-use basis, offers remote access capabilities and facilitates real-time data entry for easier decision making.
Final Word
This technological feat does show the phenomenal advancement that’s happening in the drug development process across the globe. As global companies are becoming highly cost-conscious, they are moving to such new platforms for lowering their operating costs while keeping their quality tag intact. Infosys knows its business well and hopes to earn more revenue by continuous innovation on software development for serving such customers in the life sciences industry.
