Marken And TrakCel Collaborate To Serve Cell and Gene Trials

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Dec. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marken announced a new collaboration with TrakCel, the leading provider of fully integrated software for the comprehensive management and tracking of the many stages of the cell and gene therapy supply chain.

Cell and gene therapies represent a new area of groundbreaking innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry.  This new technology targets difficult to treat diseases by using a patient's own genes, tissues or cells (or those of a donor) as key ingredients in the manufacture of a new medicinal therapeutic agent.  After manufacturing, many of these agents are either personalized or donor-recipient matched, temperature sensitive, and in most cases are irreplaceable.  In addition, the personalized nature of these treatments requires a Chain of Identity for each  batch to ensure the treatments are used only by the intended patient.  The clinical supply chains required to handle these treatments are arguably the most complex in the industry and Marken has made investments to supply these services. 

Technology plays a key part in the supply chain and Marken has chosen TrakCel to deepen capabilities in this category of services.  TrakCel has developed leading integrated technology to effectively and easily orchestrate the cell therapy supply chain for autologous and allogeneic therapies.  The software tracks patient and donor registration, material collection, manufacture, shipment data and final patient infusion details. The interface between TrakCel's and Marken's operating systems allows users to automatically schedule or amend material collections in line with manufacturing capacity and each healthcare provider's treatment schedules. Clinicians are then able to view the progress of therapies through each stage of the supply chain with a single, integrated system. 

Wes Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer for Marken commented, "The collaboration between Marken and TrakCel is a natural next step in our strategy to expand Marken's service offerings into the cell and gene clinical supply chain market. Our network of 49 global sites now include eight cryogenic (LN2) service stations and a very large and well-distributed fleet of specialty shipping containers to serve these trials.  We also ensure 100% of all cell and gene shipments travel with our GPS tracking technology and are monitored by our 24/7 Global Control Center.  We look forward to our new collaboration with TrakCel and what we can achieve together."

"Success in cell and gene therapy development and commercialization relies on close collaboration between industry partners," says Ravi Nalliah, TrakCel's Chief Executive Officer. "Our collaboration with Marken further enhances the level of needle-to-needle visibility and control that clients can achieve through TrakCel's software. Importantly, this integration is not dependent on any specific client's infrastructure. The benefits of our collaboration are available to all clients without the time and cost associated with custom integrations, saving the client valuable resources, and is scalable on a global basis."

About Marken
Marken is a wholly owned subsidiary of UPS. Marken is the only patient-centric supply chain organization 100% dedicated to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Marken maintains the leading position for Direct to Patient and Home Health care services, biological sample shipments and offers a state-of-the-art GMP-compliant depot network and logistic hubs in 49 locations worldwide for clinical trial material storage and distribution. Marken's more than 900 staff members manage 55,000 drug and biological shipments every month at all temperature ranges in more than 150 countries. Additional services such as biological kit production, ancillary material sourcing, storage and distribution, shipment lane verification and qualifications, as well as GDP, regulatory and compliance consultancy add to Marken's unique position in the pharma and logistics industry.

www.marken.com

About TrakCel 
TrakCel is the market leading designer, developer and deliverer of integrated technologies specifically created in 2012 to manage the international autologous and allogeneic cell, gene and immunotherapy supply chain. TrakCel's software platform has been developed in collaboration with, and increasingly adopted by leading companies in the cell, gene and immunotherapy industries. TrakCel's solutions deliver real-time control over the entire therapeutic supply chain, from sample collection through manufacturing to treatment delivery. The TrakCel platform accelerates global scale-up and scale-out of cell and gene therapy products, increasing efficiency and decreasing complexity, while maintaining needle-to-needle compliance and traceability.  TrakCel is headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, UK with US offices in California and New Jersey.  

www.trakcel.com

SOURCE Marken

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