Marken Introduces New Drop-off Service For Clinical Trial Samples In The United States

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marken announced today the launch of a new service that will allow nurses to drop off clinical trial samples at The UPS Store^® locations within the United States. This expanded service is a direct result of the exponential growth of home-based clinical trials in the past few years. Marken worked closely with its parent company, UPS^® (NYSE: UPS) to set up the unique service which provides patients and nurses greater flexibility for home care during clinical trials.

Marken continues to lead the industry in direct to patient (DTP) and direct from patient (DFP) supply chain solutions to meet the growing demand from the clinical trial industry. Currently 24% of clinical trials offer a home-based solution and that number is expected to increase by 33% in the next 12 to 18 months.*

Approximately 84% of the US population lives within 10 miles of a The UPS Store location in the United States. All locations have the capability to handle pre-packed, pre-paid shipments at all temperature ranges, including ambient, refrigerated and even frozen samples which require dry ice. The UPS Store locations offer UPS Next Day Air^® service, early morning delivery to the central and regional labs from many origins.

Marken will manage the booking of shipments with UPS in order to ensure protocol compliance, patient data blinding and data encryption which are required for clinical trials.

The growth of DTP and DFP supply chain services in recent years has been a response to the focus on patient-centric trials and medicines. These services allow clinical trial materials to be delivered directly to a patient's home and biological samples picked up with minimal interruption to a patient's lifestyle.

Wes Wheeler, Marken's Chief Executive Officer, said, "As the clinical trial industry moves toward more personalized treatments, Marken is ensuring our services evolve for these more complex and specialized trials. This new drop-off solution will allow nurses to take specimens directly to the nearest The UPS Store location and enable fast delivery to our central lab client locations for rapid analysis. Given our new ownership by UPS, we are now able to leverage their vast network of locations and the thousands of daily flights each day to all parts of the United States."

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 services and biological sample shipments and offers a state-of-the-art GMP-compliant depot network and logistic hubs in 47 locations worldwide for clinical trial material storage and distribution. Marken's more than 830 staff members manage 50,000 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.

*Assessing the Current and Future State of Clinical Trial Supplies, March 8, 2017 by Arena International

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SOURCE Marken