The role of AI in supply chain management proved to be the focal issue at the recent 2025 Clinical Trial Supply Europe conference, as speakers discussed the risks to clinical trial supply in a shifting geopolitical landscape.
Representatives from the biopharma industry and governance met through 25–26 February in Barcelona, Spain, for presentations and panel discussions on trial logistics and technological innovation in clinical research. Chief among experts’ concerns was the mounting pressure placed on clinical trial supply chains as global trade networks undergo continued regionalisation. The view shared by many was that AI integration will be vital as companies look to safeguard against unforeseen shortages.
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The conference began with opening remarks from Arnaud Dourlens, head of clinical supply operations at Sanofi.
“Clinical supply is no longer about just delivering drugs”, Dourlens stated. “It’s also about delivering agility, resilience, and innovation.”
He set the tone for discussions over the next two days by identifying the major trends driving shifting priorities within biopharma research. Strength of supply, he said, has joined underlying science as a prime determinant of trial success. He noted the contribution of pharma to CO₂ emissions as further compounding challenges to robust supply and successful trials. Collaboration and the acceptance of AI will be central in the sector’s response to supply challenges, Dourlens said.
Directly following Dorulens was Thomas Thoma, head of managed access programmes at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Thoma spoke about the newly empowered European Shortages Monitoring Platform (ESMP) of the EU to combat drug shortages in the continent. Since 2 February, companies and EU member states must report critical medicine stocks and shortages via this platform to enable drug sharing between countries as part of the MSSG [Executive Steering Group on Shortages and Safety of Medicinal Products] solidarity mechanism.
In addition to addressing concerns within Europe, presenters spoke on the broader trend of deglobalisation in biopharma. GlobalData analyst Carolina Pinto described to attendees the geopolitical drivers of this trend. Due to insular US foreign policy, Pinto said a “bifurcation” of global trade between an America-led West and China-led East has taken place.
“Since 2020, the disruption [to supply chains] has been unprecedented,” she stated, noting a shift among companies from responsive “just-in-time” supply models to “just-in-case” ones based on maintaining inventories to safeguard against unforeseen shortage.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
This new paradigm of pre-emptive risk management should be centred on AI-enabled data analysis, according to Colin Shelton, clinical supply chain group director at GSK. Shelton emphasised the need for quick action and efficient communication for companies to adapt to growing uncertainty in trial supply. Others such as Marcel Walraven, supply chain specialist at clinical courier Biocair, saw opportunity in fragmented trade networks. For companies like Biocair, Walraven anticipated a surge in demand for increasingly complex international transport of clinical trial materials.
The conference’s second day began with a presentation from Andreas Schwinn, senior qualified person for investigational medicinal products at Roche. Schwinn said an overhaul in the EU Clinical Trial Regulations is set to simplify approvals in what he described as “probably the most important regulatory development within the past decades for clinical trials”. Harmonised processes pave the way for speedier approval and eased shortages, Schwinn said.
Later in the day, a panel discussion on how private companies might harmonise their research and supply was moderated by Fernanda Teles, head of global clinical logistics at DHL Supply Chain. It is crucial to evaluate performance metrics more accurately to this end, according to Pierre-Gaultier Delheid, head of clinical supply partnering at UCB. Conversely, increased partnership was seen as most key to harmonisation by Aiden Smith, director of global business development at DHL.
Contributing to discussion on AI throughout the conference was Chandrakumar Pillai, an enterprise architect with the European Commission. Pillai delved into the transformative potential of AI to maximise trial enrolment through medical data analysis and optimise supply management by forecasting demand.
The conference concluded with a series of problem-solving roundtable discussions. This included a session on the real-world use of machine learning tools to optimise supply management by Gianpiero Lorusso, an independent cold chain expert. Lorusso used the example of Genlots, an AI-powered enterprise resource planner (ERP) based in Morges, Switzerland, to demonstrate how such technologies can minimise the cost, emissions, and delivery times involved in clinical trial supply.
