Clinical research IT provider targets clinical supply management

Bracket (Wayne, PA), a player in the clinical research IT market with products for managing clinical outcomes reporting and randomized trial supply management, is broadening its suite of offerings with SmartSupplies, a software platform from a San Diego company, CLINapps. SmartSupplies, in turn, is available in a variety of configurations, ranging from label design and printing to planning, materials and distribution (PMD). No purchase price was disclosed.

According to Bracket, CLINapps’ product portfolio will be tightly integrated into Bracket’s eClinical product suite—its existing Randomization and Trial Supply Management (RTSM) offering in particular. With integration of the two suites, the company will advance areas of demand planning (forecasting), inventory management, cold chain distribution and controls electronic batch records and overall quality control on the labeling, release, assignment and return of clinical trial materials.

The current clinical research IT market is highly fragmented, even as it is projected to experience double-digit growth over the next several years. Grand View Research, a San Francisco market research firm, measures the current market for clinical trial management systems (CTMS)—which is only a part of the overall clinical IT market—at $700 million, growting a 14% CAGR through 2024. The supply management component is being driven by the globalization of clinical research, combined with the complexity both of trails generally and of the biotech products dominating current research.