How A Best Practice Strategy For Sourcing Ancillary Materials Reduced Risk, Spending, And Workload In A Global Diabetes Trial

It’s impossible to run a global clinical trial of an investigational diabetes drug without ancillary materials. And as one leading multi-national pharmaceutical company recently learned, managing ancillaries can be a challenge every bit as complex as the trial itself.

The wide variety of equipment, instruments and consumables that are collectively known as ancillaries are clinical trial necessities. A trial cannot begin unless investigator sites have supplies of both the investigational drug and the ancillary components.

While all trials require ancillaries, diabetes trials typically require a high level of these products in order to administer the investigational medicinal product (IMP). Examples include lancets, test strips and glucose meters, refrigerators for storing supplies,  laptops for site administrators and even electronics such as iPhones and wearable devices that go home with study patients.