Patient-Centric Supply Chains: Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovation (2025 Update)

The biopharmaceutical industry is rapidly evolving toward patient-centric approaches, particularly in cell and gene therapy. With therapies often designed for a single patient, supply chains are under pressure to balance efficiency, safety, and personalized care.

In a recent Leading Minds Network seminar expert panel discussion in Boston, biopharma supply chain leaders Craig Vermeyen (Kite a Gilead Company), K. Nicole Harter (Eli Lilly) Michael Sweeney (QuickSTAT - A Kuehne+Nagel Company), and industry veteran Geoff Glauser shared a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges, innovations, and lessons learned in building patient-centric supply chains.

What is a Patient-Centric Supply Chain?

Simply stated, a patient-centric supply chain model is designed around the patient, with highly personalized logistics such as lot-size-one manufacturing, vial-level tracking, and home delivery.

Vermeyen (Kite) explained, “As a cell therapy company, Kite has an autologous closed-loop supply chain serving a specific patient. We take in their blood and then we send our product back to that specific patient — one lot, one patient. So we are very patient-centric.”

What is a Closed-Loop Cell & Gene Therapy Supply Chain?

In a closed-loop system, the manufacturer builds a direct relationship with the hospital and the patient. Hospitals become familiar with the therapy’s packaging and handling requirements, and can give feedback.

“That closeness enables continuous improvement in packaging, training, and shipment processes.”

 

 Craig Vermeyen, Kite, a Gilead Company 

However, Vermeyen notes that any failure (delay, excursion, loss) is highly consequential because the therapy is patient-specific. “There must be a balance between complexity and efficiency,” he says.

Another panelist highlighted the spectrum of patient-centric approaches, noting the company has clinical trials that are everything from the giant blockbuster with thousands of patients in several countries to a trial right now for a gene that cures deafness. “We're talking about dozens of patients, not even hundreds at this point. So, you’ve got some things that are necessarily patient-centric, like that gene therapy, and others where it’s a little less obvious.”

“I have 30-plus years in this industry, and I've never seen it crazier than it is today,” one panelist added noting it the most rewarding to be in a patient-centric role where there is direct involvement with the direct-to-patient service, as well as cell and gene therapy.

Hyper-Care and Digital Innovation

For gene therapies, panelist acknowledged that ultra-rigorous handling is essential. At this stage, cost is secondary to ensuring the therapy arrives exactly when and where it’s needed for the next step in a clinical trial. The industry is already exploring next-generation options, such as smart vial labels that track both temperature and location to confirm delivery to the intended hospital.

Why Do Cell and Gene Therapies Need Vial-Level Tracking?

Vial-level tracking is beneficial because cell & gene therapies are often unique to each patient and very sensitive, so real-time, granular visibility ensures safety and correct delivery.

Vermeyen discussed how Kite leverages data for operational efficiency: “We’re trying to find better ways to aggregate data, work with disparate condition monitoring suppliers, and pull it into our internal systems for automated trend analysis.”

 

“Eventually, we want fewer people doing manual effort, while scaling manufacturing and ensuring patient safety.”

 

Craig Vermeyen, Kite 

Yet, integration remains challenging.

“Most of the APIs take a lot of effort to set up. Vendors often haven’t done the groundwork — it takes six months just to get a contract set up, explains Vermeyen. “I want a service where someone comes to me, sets it up, and provides aggregated data. That infrastructure doesn’t really exist yet.”

Another panelist agreed, pointing to internal resistance. They explained that teams are used to their existing software and temperature monitoring tools, and when they try to introduce new options for clinical trials or scale into manufacturing, some colleagues push back against adding even a small additional cost per vial—even if it would enhance data quality.

One panel member highlighted scalability as a key challenge, noting that hospitals won’t always have the staffing needed to manage these processes. While telemedicine and nursing support can help, there’s still significant potential to improve the patient experience through stronger industry collaboration.

The Importance of Standardization

All panelists agreed that standardization is critical. Vermeyen highlighted supply chain realities: “There’s a need to aggregate data. We’ll pay for a solution — someone solve this problem.” It was noted that technology is moving too fast for stakeholders to take six years to deploy a new ERP. The need to work together with urgency and share best practices was stressed.

How Can Packaging be More Patient-Centric?

Today’s biopharma packaging can designed to be more patient centric by prioritizing usability (easy to open), clarity (intuitive instructions), and assurance (temperature indicators), especially for home delivery.

One panelist shared a striking example from direct-to-patient experience: “For one drug, patients struggled to use the device. We had to redesign it. If you’re delivering to a patient’s home, you need to consider if it’s easy to open. Are instructions clear? A patients’ first experience with your company is often through the package.” All agreed that there is a need to think about scalability.

All agreed that there is a need to think about scalability. “Hospitals won’t always have staff to manage this. Telemedicine and nursing interventions can help, but there’s a huge opportunity to improve patient experience if we collaborate as a community,” one expert added.

Vermeyen noted that Kite’s closed-loop supply chain allows direct feedback from hospital staff. “The cell lab staff gets familiar with our process. We can refine secondary packaging and respond to product complaints. Training is specific to our product, but there’s a lot of variation across trials and products, which reinforces the need for standard protocols.”

Intervention and Carrier Management

Geoff Glauser, a veteran pharmaceutical executive, raised the question of intervention: “Should something go wrong — whether a pallet at an airport or an individual patient supply — can you respond in time? This is more critical in cell and gene therapy than in mass production.”

One panelist noted that multiple carriers can be managed, but it requires intervention. There is still a need to monitor pick-up and delivery timing and ensure shipments are handled correctly.

It was also noted that for high-risk, low-volume therapies, it’s best to rely on a single trusted carrier. But for commercial products or larger clinical trials, there’s more flexibility to use multiple carriers. Achieving scalability requires working with several logistics partners and aggregating data, enabling a shift from reactive to proactive supply chain management.

Optimizing for Safety and Efficiency

Glauser summarized the key priorities: “Optimization can target speed of process, system handling, or potential interruptions. For cell therapy, preventing loss of a single sample is the highest priority. Speed is secondary, because patient assignment and diagnostics can take weeks. Systems optimization is ongoing, but safety comes first.”

Conclusion

The panel underscored that patient-centric supply chains in cell and gene therapy are complex, high-stakes, and evolving. Solutions require:

• Data integration to enable real-time monitoring
• Standardization across packaging, monitoring, and protocols
• Hyper-care approaches for single-patient therapies
• Collaboration among providers, hospitals, and suppliers

Ultimately, the panel’s perspectives reveal that patient-centric supply chains demand a careful balance of advanced technology, reliable logistics, and genuine human care. Participants emphasized that solving these challenges represents a major business opportunity, and that a patient’s first interaction with a company often happens through the package itself—underscoring the importance of thoughtful design. They also stressed that rapid advances in technology and patient-driven innovation will only reach their full potential through industry-wide collaboration and practical, scalable solutions.