Lilly's 50% Increase in Vendor Qualification Capacity

About Lilly

Lilly is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a near 150 year long history of taking on the toughest diseases to help improve lives of people globally. Lilly is valued as the largest pharmaceutical company globally by market cap, as well as being among the largest biomedical companies. With clinical research conducted in more than 55 countries across the world, Lilly has a global network of clinical trial Vendors that it must grow and maintain.

The Challenge

Lilly faced increasing pressure to qualify a growing number of vendors for critical clinical trials. With a global network of vendors, managing the qualification process within a consistent timeline was complex.

Additionally, Lilly needed to qualify vendors across various categories within the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) spaces. Each vendor type required specialized internal expertise to ensure a proper evaluation. However, their internal team was stretched thin, leading to capacity constraints and an inability to manage the growing workload.

This posed a risk: delays in vendor qualification could push back trial startups, affecting critical project timelines.

The Solution: Diligent Pharma 

By utilizing Diligent Pharma, Lilly gained immediate access to audit reports and qualification data from vendors already qualified by Diligent’s auditors, who have deep expertise in 35+ GCP/GCLP vendor categories.

• Fast Onboarding: Lilly was able to qualify and onboard vendors in days rather than months, significantly reducing the time spent on qualification.

• Global Coordination: For vendors not yet listed on the platform, Lilly used Diligent’s global network of auditors to conduct simultaneous qualification audits worldwide, ensuring quick vendor onboarding.

With Diligent, Lilly’s internal resources were freed from the burden of managing the qualification process for every vendor.

The Results

Through Diligent Pharma, Lilly were able to reach a 50% increase in qualification capacity, overcoming internal resource limitations. Lilly were able to achieve this while also managing to reduce qualification time from 3 months to just days, increasing efficiency without sacrificing on quality. With Diligent's global reach, Lilly were able to optimize their vendor management processes for their entire network of worldwide trial Vendors.