The Value We Offer -- Speed of Shipment With Zero Defects
At a recent Global Clinical Supplies Conference, there was a common frustration that I heard over and over again...dissatisfaction over long label lead times.
While sitting outside on the beautiful veranda of our hotel, several clinical supply chain managers told me of their great frustration in trying to get labels to their production facilities in a timely manner. They implied that label manufacturers were insensitive to how important meeting their timelines were to the success of their clinical studies. The fact that big pharma thinks label production is too slow was verified by all the e-label projects that were being touted by the big pharma collaboration TransCelerate.
This wasn’t the first time that I have heard this complaint, but it was the most pronounced that I remember. I know that our competitors heard the same thing because I witnessed their expressions of dissatisfaction when we had a chance to talk (we many of us are friends) about the fact that biotech and pharma were pushing too hard…that their demands were getting too tough. I understand their feelings and have felt the same way at times, but it is up to us as clinical label manufacturers to embrace the challenge of meeting these demands. We have no choice particularly now when medications based on biologics and cell & gene have short windows of use.
“We have built our dedicated clinical label manufacturing facility with the mission of producing clinical labels faster particularly booklet labels.” Listen to Jeff's 55 second comment on speed of shipment.
We understand that clinical teams are under enormous pressure from sponsors, patients, doctors and competitors to get the study done as fast as possible so it can be submitted to the FDA for review. This is why we have built our clinical label facility on being as flexible and as responsive as possible to our customer's demanding delivery requirements. In fact, we are getting a reputation for being the "go to" company when the impossible needs to be done. Below are examples of our average lead times with non-variable text:
- Single Ply Labels - Ships in 3-5 working days from approved artwork (die/materials in inventory) (We have shipped the same day when needed).
- (Pi) Labels® (wraparounds) - Ships in 6-8 working days from approved artwork (die/materials in inventory).
- Booklet Labels - Ships in 10-12 days from approved artwork (die/materials in inventory).
How can we do this? Firstly, we control the manufacturing process because we make the booklet labels in our facility which is something not all clinical label providers can do or can say. Since we have control over the manufacturing process, we can push production to compress the timeline. All of this, of course, is done following a very strict zero defect QA program. This includes everything from single panel labels to booklet labels. (We have 35 years of making booklet labels so it is one of our specialties.)
Aside from having control over the manufacturing process, we are able to respond well to customer deadlines because we are very careful about onboarding new customers. We work only with companies that are a good fit (first), and only take business when we have the capacity to handle it (second).
We want to avoid giving our customer’s pain and losing our hard earned reputation of being a responsive clinical label manufacturer so we match our capabilities carefully to the level of business we anticipate. We find our customers to be much more satisfied with this measured approach.
Please call us so we can discuss your next label project. If your project isn't as urgent, it would be our honor to send you one of our free sample kits that will introduce you to our beautiful samples and service. I think you will find our family business to be a joy to work with.
Jeff Bertrand
CEO
With 18 years of clinical label experience, we are excellent at designing and implementing clinical label projects. Here's an overview of how we approach projects.
- Review your clinical label project to understand what you need to achieve.
- Go over all the items that need to be labeled which may include cartons, bags, containers, vials, sachets, etc.
- Look at the volume of copy needed for each item to see what type of label construction is the best fit. This includes booklet labels where we have solid solutions for round and square containers. This may include using a (Pi) Label® construction to eliminate your booklet label choice.
- Understand the application and storage temperatures for the labels so that the labels stay affixed to the packaging.
- Discuss the variable print needs (if applicable) which may include blinded random print of the variable data.
- Provide a detailed quote that matches what we discussed.
- Agree to a timeline that makes sense for your production schedule.
- Get it done with a sense of urgency.
