An Inside Look at World Courier

The complexity of drug development is not to be contested. From discovering a molecule; moving from pre-clinical to clinical testing; gaining regulatory approval, pharma companies invest so much resources and time into developing cures and therapies which are ultimately unlikely to make it to market. 

But while we may all have an idea of the scale of the pharma market, the area of logistics often goes unsung for the role it plays it in delivering much needed medicines around the world.

On the back of sector leader World Courier’s 50th anniversary, European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer editor Reece Armstrong sat down with president Sam Herbert to discuss the complexity of the pharma supply chain and the role the company has played on the industry’s world stage.  

Founded in New York in 1969 by Jim Berger, World Courier quickly developed a global network that helped it move products quickly and efficiently around the world. In the 1980s, the company was approached by pharma companies working on infectious disease trials. 

“It was at a time when clinical trials were looking more globally and looking to do more of the testing in central laboratories,” Herbert explains.

At that point, no one was moving infectious samples around the globe, so it came down to World Courier to learn. The company moved most of its products on commercial airlines, petitioning them to move infectious samples largely destined for HIV and AIDS-based trials. Since then, the company has moved into investigational products, set up in-country clinical trial depots and established offices in over 50 countries. 

For Herbert, who joined in 2013, one year after the company was acquired by AmerisourceBergen, it makes sense that World Courier’s ‘value proposition is that flexibility and that adaptability’, he tells me. 

Herbert gives the examples of the emergence of cell and gene therapies, treatments which bring about a whole new set of challenges in how they’re transported. 

“People talk about these as the third wave of innovation, from small molecules to big molecules, to now these personalised therapies which are someone’s engineered cells that are being moved,” Herbert says. “The complexities of those logistics are just much, much more challenging. The patient is actually in the supply chain.” 

The pressure on the company to deliver these therapies in a time-sensitive manner is immense, Herbert explains. 

“The tolerance for anything not to go right is very small so the contingency planning that you need to go through, and the active monitoring and issue resolution is extremely high for these therapies. But at the same time they’re incredibly exciting if you look at some of the outcomes we’re seeing from these therapies.”

It’s not just treatments that are evolving but the ways in which pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials, all of which bleed into how World Courier operates as a company. 

Herbert tells me about how certain pharma companies are targeting therapies for smaller populations, such as rare and orphan diseases, and how clinical trials now need to recruit patient populations from further afield. 

Traditional clinical trials, which are usually based at one site and might require daily infusions, can place a huge burden on families having to choose to move closer to the site’s location or decide not to participate in the trial.

Clinical trials targeting patient populations which may be more dispersed require an approach which Herbert calls personalised supply chains or a direct-to-patient model. The ability for World Courier to deliver infusions to a patient’s house, or  school at which a nurse can administer the therapy, removes the burden of families having to suddenly move and brings benefits to the pharmaceutical company conducting the trial such an increased retention rates and faster recruitment times. 

Our conversation delves on the innovations occurring in the supply chain sector, the importance of industry integration and standardisation and how the company’s global reach has enabled it to help its clients deal with emerging regulatory changes.

But one area Herbert identifies as needing improvement is in unlicensed medicines. While unlicensed medicines can be prescribed by a healthcare professional, Herbert alludes to more nefarious parties making certain drugs available on an unlicensed basis into other countries. 

Hebert mentions how he sees the practice occurring particularly around drugs for rare and orphan diseases and also in the paediatrics market as well. For children with a certain type of cancer or genetic disease, there’s little parents wouldn’t do to obtain a therapy they think will help, Herbert says. 

“I feel for pharma companies cause they’re trying to control this through different distribution set ups, but these drugs are getting out. Personally, in terms of counterfeiting and profiteering I see large opportunities for improvement,” Herbert adds.

Talking of improvement, World Courier has recently expanded its distribution capabilities in a move which Herbert believes comes back to operating at scale. 

With over 150 offices, World Courier’s scale means it can respond to client needs much more quickly.

“If you have a patient in a specific city, where something has changed in terms of the day, we can respond much more quickly, because we can have the right packaging on hand with the right capabilities to then move that sample rather than needing to have a one-to-two day lead time.”

“There are a lot of cost pressures on pharmaceutical companies and we’re seeing more and more pharmaceutical companies want to work with global companies rather than have different partners in every country,” Herbert says.

World Courier certainly now seems to be that global company Herbert alludes to. From small beginnings in New York, the company has played an unsung role in helping to deliver life-saving medicines all across the world. Here’s to another 50 years.