Science 37, a leader in expanding patient access to clinical trials, and Catalent, a global contract development and manufacturing organization, have announced a strategic partnership that fundamentally transforms how investigational medicinal products are delivered to patients participating in clinical research. The collaboration enables patients to participate in clinical trials from their homes by providing reliable, efficient shipping and logistics services for study medications across diverse geographies.
Partnership Delivers Significant Enrollment Success
The partnership between Science 37 and Catalent has demonstrated substantial impact across clinical research operations. Across 17 studies, the collaboration has enrolled nearly 1,700 patients by bringing clinical trials directly into participants' homes. Each Direct-to-Patient Site has achieved an average enrollment of 26% of the total study population, with 9 patients enrolled per month—equivalent to the performance of more than 15 traditional brick-and-mortar clinical trial locations.
The logistics infrastructure supporting this model has proven robust, with the partnership delivering over 6,400 shipments to study participants to date. This delivery system ensures rapid and secure distribution of investigational medicinal products across geographies while maintaining the regulatory compliance and quality standards required for clinical research.
Addressing Geographic Barriers in Clinical Research
"Catalent's expertise in direct-to-patient logistics is a key enabler of our mission to expand access to clinical trials," said Tyler Van Horn, CEO at Science 37. "By removing geographic barriers, we're not only reaching more diverse patient populations, we're also driving faster enrollment and generating high-quality data that helps bring treatments to market sooner."
The partnership specifically targets the challenge of geographic accessibility in clinical research by refining the investigational medicinal product supply chain for at-home trial participation and visit execution. This approach enables participation from patients who might otherwise be excluded from clinical trials due to distance from traditional research sites or mobility limitations.
Streamlined Operations and Enhanced Efficiency
The integrated solution offers pharmaceutical sponsors an end-to-end clinical trial site under a single contract and budget, streamlining operations while improving enrollment speed and retention rates. This consolidated approach eliminates the complexity of managing multiple vendor relationships and provides sponsors with a unified point of accountability for both patient engagement and drug supply logistics.
"Our partnership with Science 37 transforms the clinical trial experience, bringing research directly to participants while preserving the rigor and efficiency on which sponsors rely," said Ricky Hopson, President, Clinical and Specialty Services, and Chief of Staff at Catalent. "Together, we're advancing a more inclusive and patient-centered future for clinical research, without compromising precision or quality."
Expanding Access to Underserved Populations
The collaboration specifically addresses the need to expand access to underserved and geographically dispersed populations, a critical challenge in ensuring clinical trial diversity and generalizability of research results. By eliminating the requirement for patients to travel to traditional clinical sites, the partnership removes significant barriers that have historically limited participation in clinical research.
Catalent's role in the partnership leverages the company's global infrastructure of more than 40 sites and expertise in development sciences, delivery technologies, and multi-modality manufacturing. The company supports the acceleration of development programs and launches more than a hundred new products annually, supplying billions of doses of treatments to patients worldwide.
