Marken Opens New Kit Building Facility In Shanghai

Marken announced today the opening of a new Kit Building Center in Shanghai, the company's third location in addition to Hamburg and Singapore. The new 370 square meter facility is centrally located in the in the Pudong district and includes a processing area for patient sample collection kit assembly, a dedicated temperature-controlled storage area and office space. The existing Shanghai logistics office will be co-located which allows the combined facility to import raw materials and distribute kits domestically throughout China, in addition to the movement of biological samples and clinical drug product. 

Michael Culme-Seymour, VP Asia Pacific Asia Pacific Region, commented, "The opening of our new Shanghai facility allows us to provide more services to our customers in China. Shanghai is a strategically important gateway for China, as an important domestic hub for kit distribution but also as a key hub for distribution of clinical drugs and movement of biologic specimens. Adding the kit building capability to this location further strengthens our service offering in Shanghai and complements our operations in Beijing and Hong Kong, S.A.R., China. We now have 14 locations in the Asia Pacific region and we will continue to grow with our client's needs." 

Steadily increasing drug development costs and timelines, plus access to large global patient populations, make China ever more attractive for conducting clinical trials and so the number of global clinical trials will increase in China and other developing markets. In a survey conducted by Applied Clinical Trials and SCORR Marketing, a total of 41% of the respondents currently conduct clinical trials in China, and 33% of all respondents had increased the number of trials enrolled in China in a 2-year timeframe. A majority of the respondents forecast continued expansion and growth in China and India. Although the large pool of patients is a key motivation, nearly two-thirds of those planning to increase the number of trials they conduct in China are doing so because of China's large and growing market opportunities.¹

¹ Trends In Clinical Research In China, Pharmaphorum.

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 46 locations worldwide for clinical trial material storage and distribution. Marken's more than 800 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