The arrival of the ‘haute couture’ supply chain

Arnaud Dourlens, Head of Clinical Supply Chain Operations at Sanofi, on building a resilient supply chain and creating efficient clinical trials

Sanofi is a one-of-a-kind pharmaceutical company for the modern age. Self-described as ‘pushing the frontiers of science’ and ‘chasing the miracles of science to improve peoples’ lives’, the 100,000-plus employee company delivers ‘life-changing treatments and life-saving vaccines’ to patients around the globe, in more than 100 countries.

The man in charge of the entire strategic sourcing and shipping process for the pharma company is Arnaud Dourlens, Head of Clinical Supply Chain Operations, who also oversees worldwide trial supply.

At heart, though, Dourlens is an engineer. He began his career in the FMCG (fastmoving consumer goods) industry, working for giants Procter & Gamble. Later, he moved into the luxury sector – the domain of beauty powerhouses such as perfume and cosmetics’ leader Christian Dior.

“For more than 10 years, I worked across operations, the supply chain, new product launches, and industrialisation – first in the makeup area and then in every cosmetic area, meaning makeup, fragrances and skincare,” outlines Dourlens.

In 2017, he switched to Sanofi as Production Director and embraced the pharmaceutical environment. During this period, Dourlens was based at the Compiègne site, in Northern France.

“It’s quite a strategic site here,” says Dourlens. “I led the team on the road of site improvement and transformation to be fit for the future.”

Dourlens joined Sanofi because he was passionate about the pharmaceutical field and had experience in demanding, highadded-value environments.

“I was proud to have worked in the luxury sector, making it possible for people to be even more beautiful than they are, thanks to makeup and cosmetics,” says Dourlens. “But being a part of a journey where you are allowing patients to access treatment, to change the life of some people on a daily basis and improve their wellbeing may be a bit less trendy, but it’s so important.”

Dourlens joined the pharma’s Clinical Supply Chain Operations in Montpellier in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in this period of chaos, it was up to Dourlens to ensure the business continuity.

“That was not easy,” says Dourlens. “As Global Head of Clinical Supply Chain, I'm heading the world supply chain of Sanofi’s clinical development – overseeing more than 300 clinical studies, making sure that we are delivering their investigational treatments to all the clinical patients, either at home or at hospital.”

Clinical trial supply chains

– a source of value

Dourlens believes that the clinical trial supply chain can be a source of value for patients and the healthcare sector.

“When a patient is suffering from a disease, he or she is in a tough situation and clinical trials are an option of care for him or her,” explains Dourlens.

Behind the clinical trial, there are a lot of activities that are happening around

Executive Bio

Arnaud Dourlens

Arnaud Dourlens

TITLE: HEAD OF CLINICAL SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS

TITLE: HEAD OF CLINICAL SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS

INDUSTRY: PHARMACEUTICAL

INDUSTRY: XPHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING

LOCATION: OCCITANIE, FRANCE

Arnaud Dourlens is an "Arts et Métiers" engineer. He began his industrial career in the FMCG sector where he held growing responsibilities. Then he joined the LVMH group where he reorganised new product launches and industrial investments in the Make-up segment .

Arnaud joined Sanofi in 2017 as Production Director of a major production site (>€2.5bn turnover). He has been a key player in the development of the continuous improvement mindset and in the transformation of the site through IT projects, investments and activity growth.

Since 2020, he has been the global head of Sanofi Clinical Supply Chain Operations, managing worldwide clinical supply teams involved in more than 300 clinical studies.

40% Average drug waste reduction

30% Average supply cost savings

2-6 Months reduction in time to market

100% Patient service level

N-SIDE Suite is a game changer in clinical supply chain

N-SIDE Life Sciences VP Sébastien Coppe explains how leveraging data & AI can streamline clinical plans, accelerate trials, mitigate risks and curb waste

N-SIDE combines deep clinical supply chain expertise with advanced mathematics, packaged into solutions to optimise the entire clinical trial supply chain by taking a global view and making data-driven decisions at every step.

“N-SIDE has been building extensive expertise over the past 20 years in empowering supply chain management in clinical development through advanced analytics and AI,” says Sébastien Coppe, N-SIDE Life Sciences VP.

Pharma companies of all sizes use the N-SIDE Suite, an intelligent SaaS solution, to avoid supply chain bottlenecks, minimise waste, control costs, reduce time-to-market, speed up the initiation of new trials, manage production plans, monitor supply chain strategy for ongoing trials, and support commercial launches. Pharmaceutical and healthcare company Sanofi started a strategic partnership with N-SIDE five years ago to digitalise their clinical supply chain.

This has led to impressive outcomes for their supply chain efficiency.

The N-SIDE Suite consists of the Supply App, for risk-based clinical supply optimisation; the Production App, for building and maintaining an optimal manufacturing strategy; and a comprehensive slate of BI dashboards and expert services.

The N-SIDE Supply App helps pharma companies optimise their supply chains throughout the trial lifecycle. It allows them to make data-driven decisions about issues including overage, packaging, sourcing, IRT setup, and depot shipments, in a smart and interconnected way. With more than 12,000 trials optimised, N-SIDE’s Supply App can be used to design and optimise any trial of any size and complexity.

“Globally, when you consider what happened during and after the Covid pandemic, we’ve seen a lot of good changes backed up by AI technology, leading to really faster clinical development activity,” says Coppe.