The Retention Revolution: Travel is the primary reason for a 30% patient dropout rate. Moving the clinical site to the home removes this significant barrier for participants across Sri Lanka.
Commitment to Global Standards: Sri Lanka’s regulatory framework adheres to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines, ensuring readiness for evolving international standards like ICH E6(R3) which emphasise a Quality by Design approach.
Unbroken Chain of Custody: Keeping unapproved medicines stable outside a clinical setting requires proven solutions like IoT sensors and specialised, white-glove delivery services.
Scalable Compliance: Success in Sri Lanka means having a partner who can navigate the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) requirements and manage logistics to both urban and rural locations.
Traditional site-centric models of research are hitting a wall in 2026. Recruitment goals are often missed because patients cannot manage the time and travel required for hospital visits. We've built the DHL Health Logistics network to solve this challenge directly. Our 2-billion-euro investment ensures you have the GDP-certified infrastructure and specialised handling needed to reach patients anywhere. Direct-to-Patient (DtP) clinical trials move the laboratory to the living room while upholding the highest levels of safety and regulatory compliance.
Travel is the main reason participants leave clinical studies. When you move the trial site to the patient, you reduce missed visits and make participation more feasible for a wider range of people.
Travel Distance: Cancer trial patients travel a median of nearly 42 miles for Phase I studies.
Rural Hurdles: In a country where over 77% of the population is rural (source data.worldbank.org), participants in remote areas often face significant travel challenges to reach trial sites in major cities.
Human Connection: Technical couriers act as a professional and reassuring extension of the clinical site right at the participant's doorstep.
Supportive Experience: White-glove services go beyond simple delivery to build participant trust and confidence in the trial process.
DHL Health Logistics provides the professional bridge between your lab and the participant. We understand that a courier is often the only face of the trial that a patient sees, making their professionalism paramount.
Sri Lanka’s regulators are focused on ensuring patient safety and data integrity in line with global best practices. The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) oversees all clinical trials, requiring adherence to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines. This aligns with the principles of emerging standards like ICH E6(R3), which require you to prove the drug stayed stable from the depot to the patient’s refrigerator.
NMRA Approval: Any clinical trial requires authorisation from the NMRA's Clinical Trials Evaluation Committee (CTEC) and an approved Ethics Review Committee (ERC) before it can begin. This means all logistics plans must be thoroughly documented from the start.
Strict Accountability: Adherence to GCP is mandatory, ensuring trials are conducted with integrity and scientific rigour. For DtP, this places a heavy emphasis on temperature records and chain of custody.
Thermal Protection: Advanced shippers maintain 2 to 8°C or -20°C for up to 120 hours, crucial for shipments moving through the Port of Colombo or Bandaranaike Airport to locations across the country.
Digital Proof: IoT sensors transmit live data, providing a verifiable audit trail to show exactly when a participant received the shipment and that its temperature remained stable.
Our investment in digital tools ensures you have a full thermal audit trail. This level of transparency is a requirement for satisfying quality assurance teams and regulatory bodies in 2026.
Delivering unapproved medicines to a private address is a strictly regulated process. You need a partner who understands the local requirements for importing investigational medicinal products as set by the NMRA.
Import Licensing: The NMRA issues specific licenses for the import of materials required for a study. Navigating this process efficiently is key to avoiding delays at the border.
Documentation Expertise: Complete and accurate documentation is critical. A reliable logistics partner can help manage the required paperwork, drawing on experience from navigating complex supply chain environments, such as during the 2022 economic crisis when government services faced disruptions.
Expert Navigation: Our local specialists work with authorities like the NMRA and Sri Lanka Customs to keep your trial on track. This local knowledge is vital for ensuring compliance and preventing clearance issues.
Expanded Footprint: Proper licensing and a robust logistics network allow you to reach participants in regions that were previously considered too complex, expanding the potential recruitment pool for your study.
Security and patient privacy are vital when delivering sensitive medical products to a home address. You must have procedures in place to ensure the medicine is handed directly to the verified participant or their legal representative.
Identity Verification: Our couriers are trained to check official identification against trial records before any package is handed over.
Point-of-Use Delivery: When required, couriers can place the medication directly into the participant’s designated storage area or refrigerator.
Instruction Support: We confirm the patient understands how to handle and open the specialised packaging to access the medicine safely.
Safe Disposal: We can collect used kits or sharp containers for compliant, medical-grade destruction, closing the logistics loop.
A DtP trial does not end at the doorstep. You must also manage the time-sensitive flow of biological samples and any unused drugs back to the central laboratory.
Stability Windows: Biological samples like blood or urine must be collected and returned to the lab under strict temperature controls and within tight time limits.
Data Integrity: If a sample is compromised by temperature fluctuations during transit, the resulting trial data can be rendered invalid.
Remote Reach: We use specialised transport solutions and pre-planned routes to reliably reach participants in less accessible areas, ensuring their samples are collected on schedule.
Unified Visibility: A clinical research associate in Colombo should see the same real-time tracking data as a sponsor in London, which is possible through a unified platform like MyDHL+.
Direct-to-Patient logistics is no longer just a future concept. It is a practical way to improve the patient experience, enhance retention, and protect the integrity of your data. DHL Health Logistics is ready to help you scale your research across Sri Lanka and the wider region. Speak to a DHL specialist today to check your trial plan and reach your participants with confidence.
They remove the significant physical and time burden of travel by delivering medicine directly to the participant's home. This makes it far easier for patients, particularly those in rural areas of Sri Lanka, to stay in the study while maintaining their daily routines.
While Sri Lanka's primary framework is GCP, the principles of ICH E6(R3) are shaping global standards. These guidelines require sponsors to use a Quality by Design approach, meaning you must have verifiable proof, often through digital records, that your investigational products remained stable throughout the entire journey to the patient.
We use real-time IoT sensors embedded in the shipments. These sensors transmit live location and thermal data to a central dashboard, ensuring you receive an immediate alert if the shipment deviates from its required temperature range.
Yes, but it requires a partner with deep expertise in managing the specific medical import licenses and regulatory bodies in each country. Using a standardised digital platform ensures your data remains consistent and comparable across markets, whether you are operating in Sri Lanka or expanding to another country in the region.
Yes, our couriers perform a verified delivery protocol. This is a crucial step that includes checking the participant's ID against trial records to ensure sensitive medication is handed directly and securely to the correct person.
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