PCI Opens North American Clinical Facility

PCI has completed a North American storage and distribution facility for clinical trial materials on a 97,000 square foot site. The site was constructed to support growth in PCI’s clinical trial services business, which includes drug development and manufacturing, laboratory services, packaging and storage services, global logistics, as well as client supporting consultative services for executing global investigational studies. PCI features these services at facilities across North America and Europe, and distributes clinical trial supplies through a network of global depots to deliver investigational medicinal products (IMP) to investigational sites around the world.

The new facility features storage for investigational supplies at controlled room temperature, as well as expansions of its cold chain storage capacity including conditions at 2-8°C, -20°C, and -80°C. In addition, the facility is a DEA registered site for schedule II – V controlled substances. Special consideration was given to management of returned investigational products, a service where PCI supports clients with management of investigational study materials returned from clinical trial sites across the globe including preplanning, on-site processing at receipt, detailed reconciliation, multi-year storage, as well as certified destruction where designated. PCI has dedicated over 8,000 square feet of the new facility for this regulatory segment of the business.

According to the company, the opening of this facility highlights a significant ongoing investment in clinical trial services. In August 2014 PCI announced the acquisition of Penn Pharma, a provider of drug development and drug manufacturing services located in Tredegar, in the UK. Subsequent to that acquisition, PCI announced in September 2014 the acquisition of Biotec Services International, located in Bridgend, also in the UK. Biotec is a provider of clinical trial services with specialization in controlled temperature management services ranging from +25°C to -196°C. The addition of the two companies brings PCI’s global footprint to 16 facilities across North America and Europe, with over 2,900 employees.

“These ongoing investments in our clinical trials business continue to allow us to grow our presence in this market and at the same time keep our focus on the significant importance of each package we prepare and each shipment of investigational study material we manage,” says Bob Misher, senior vice president of PCI Clinical Trial Services.