Ask the Expert: Questions about Real-World Evidence and Supply Chain Security

The lifecycle of a drug product doesn’t end once the drug is put on the market. It extends beyond, where real-world evidence from patient use of the product provides data that are often relied on in the continued safety testing of drugs or in the development of new drug products.

“Real-world evidence is part of the pharmacovigilance activities, and these are obviously mandatory for all marketed medicines,” explains Siegfried Schmitt, vice president, Technical, at Parexel. “Real-world evidence collation wasn't really required in the past, but it is now. And, in my opinion, it's very likely to stay, given the benefits that real-world evidence delivers. And so, therefore, the real-world evidence for the product must be gathered for as long as you keep the product on the market.”

Susan J. Schniepp, distinguished fellow at Regulatory Compliance Associates, goes on to explain that data about a product must be collected for the product’s lifetime, because of the potential for unknown side effects once used by patients. “You get indications or side effects, [when] you are in the clinical trials. But then once you open it up to the greater population, and everybody can take the medicine, you get more side effects, because it's going to affect everyone differently.”

What kind of supply chain problems can occur during the transportation of pharmaceutical products?

“We are not talking about a breakdown necessarily,” Schmitt says. “We are talking about facts like we heard of from the news, where, say, in the United States, a whole truck [of product] vanished into thin air. They stole a complete truck. They didn’t just break into a truck and steal something. There are some ports in Europe where you should never, ever transport pharmaceuticals through; they get stolen by default. A lane risk assessment is a necessity to understand ‘how can you transport safely, securely? Where should you, for example, stop your truck overnight? Is it illuminated? Is it secured? Is it just in the backyard of a motel?’”

Click the video above to watch Sue and Siegfried answer the following questions:

1. My company just launched a novel, small-molecule drug into the market. For how long do we need to gather real-world evidence to monitor its safety and efficacy?
2. My company is investigating options for a novel cell therapy for the oncology market. How can we leverage real-world evidence from our own research and from post-market drugs already on the market to choose which direction to go in?
3. We are a drug product manufacturer, and we take supply chain security very seriously. As part of our internal assessment, we have identified transportation as a critical element of the supply chain. We use several third parties for the transport of our goods. What security aspects should we address?

About the experts

Susan J. Schniepp, distinguished fellow, Regulatory Compliance Associates.

Susan J. Schniepp is distinguished fellow at Regulatory Compliance Associates and a member of Pharmaceutical Technology®'s Editorial Advisory Board.

Siegfried Schmitt, PhD, vice president, Technical, Parexel

Siegfried Schmitt is vice president, Technical at Parexel and a member of Pharmaceutical Technology®'s Editorial Advisory Board.

Ask the Expert Video Series

Welcome to the Ask the Expert video series. This series is an extension of the PharmTech Group’s long-running print column in which industry experts answer common quality and regulatory questions from the industry. This new video series will expand on topic areas to include development and manufacturing concerns to help those working in the industry better understand bio/pharmaceutical requirements. Have a question you would like answered? Send it to PTProjects@mmhgroup.com, and it may appear in a future episode or print column.

We hope you enjoy the discussion!