---
title: Holtium - Physical security for life sciences, in dollars
description: Quantify security risk across labs, GMP plants, trial sites, and the cold chain, so the next security dollar goes where exposure is highest.
image: https://holtium.com/hubfs/Home%20Featured%20Image%20Logo2.png
---
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1. [Industries](https://holtium.com/all-industries?hsLang=en)
2. /
3. Life sciences
# Physical security risk management for life sciences
Your exposure is spread across labs, plants, trial sites, and a cold chain that never stops moving, and a five-point rating scale cannot tell you which one gets the next dollar. Holtium brings the whole footprint into one place, puts a dollar figure on the risk at each site, and helps your team decide what to fix first.
[Get a demo](https://holtium.com/get-a-demo?hsLang=en) [Get your Snapshot](https://holtium.com/get-your-snapshot?hsLang=en)
If your operation is hospitals and clinics rather than labs and plants, [see Holtium for Healthcare](https://holtium.com/industries/healthcare?hsLang=en).
Inherent risk exposure across your footprint 58 sites
Research labs$6.8MHigh
GMP manufacturing$9.4MCritical
Fill-finish & API plants$7.1MHigh
Trial sites & clinics$3.6MMedium
Cold chain distribution$5.2MMedium
Corporate offices$1.9MLow
Recomputed today $34.0M total
Product diversion Research IP theft GMP inspection readiness Cold chain failure Workplace violence Counterfeit products Trial site security Regulatory exposure
Product diversion Research IP theft GMP inspection readiness Cold chain failure Workplace violence Counterfeit products Trial site security Regulatory exposure
## The stakes
$2.67B
to bring one drug from discovery to launch, up from $2.23B the year before. That is what sits inside a lab when research is compromised.
Deloitte, Measuring the return from pharmaceutical innovation, 2025.
1 in 10
medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, which keeps counterfeit and diversion pressure on every legitimate supply chain.
World Health Organization.
$35B
in estimated annual pharma losses to temperature excursions and improper handling, with security events at warehouses and in transit among the drivers.
IQVIA estimate.
The problem
## Every site type carries a different risk, and you are asked to compare them anyway
A research lab holds years of work that has no replacement cost line. A GMP plant answers to inspectors who can stop a line. Patients, product, and data converge on a single trial site address. Organized theft groups actively target the loads a distribution hub moves. Each one is a different risk, and your budget has to cover all of them.
Most life sciences security teams manage this with site assessments in separate documents, a rating scale that calls everything medium, and spending decisions defended by judgment alone. When the CFO asks why the next dollar goes to the plant and not the lab, there is no evidence behind the answer. That is the gap this page is about.
The risks
## Business risk through a physical security lens
### 1 Product diversion and patient safety
A stolen load is a replacement cost, but a diverted one that resurfaces in the market is a brand and patient safety problem that costs far more.
Theft on pharma lanes is shifting toward fraud-based pickups and insider-enabled methods (BSI Consulting and TT Club), and the exposure sits at docks, in carrier vetting, and on high-value routes. For network-level cargo theft, see [Holtium for Logistics](https://holtium.com/industries/logistics?hsLang=en).
### 2 Workplace violence at trial sites and patient-facing operations
Clinical trial sites, infusion centers, and patient-facing operations put your staff in the settings where workplace violence concentrates: the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds healthcare settings absorb about 73 percent of nonfatal workplace violence injuries in the US.
Each incident carries a safety response cost, and duty of care that cannot be evidenced compounds into legal exposure.
### 3 Protecting pharmaceutical intellectual property
At $2.67B to bring one drug to launch (Deloitte, 2025), the research inside a lab is usually worth more than the building around it.
Physical access to labs, pilot plants, and the people who carry the work is part of how research walks out the door, and the loss shows up as competitive advantage that never appears on an incident report.
### 4 Regulatory exposure at GMP and trial sites
Access control, visitor management, and material handling at GMP plants and trial sites are inspection subjects, not just security hygiene.
cGMP and the EU's good distribution practice rules put facility controls in inspection scope, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act makes supply chain traceability a legal obligation, and DEA diversion control makes the secure storage and handling of controlled substances a physical security requirement with license exposure attached. A finding that stops a line or delays an approval turns a control gap into lost production time and legal exposure, in amounts that dwarf the cost of the control itself.
### 5 Cold chain failures and business interruption
Industry surveys put annual pharma losses to temperature excursions and improper handling in the tens of billions.
Security events at warehouses and in transit are one driver of those excursions, and a single interrupted shipment of high-value product can be a full replacement loss plus the productivity cost of the shortage behind it.
Chain of custody — Load 4821, Memphis lane
Load dispatched, dock 12
07:20
Custody transfer, carrier scan missed
11:05
Diversion flagged, investigation opened
11:40
Nonfatal workplace violence injuries, by setting
Healthcare & patient-facing settings73%
All other industries combined27%
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The research security pathway
Privileged access
Research labs
Pilot plants
Sample library
Formulation data
Where privileged access turns into lost research
Inspection scope, sized to the site
Access control Visitor management Material handling GMP core
Cold chain lane, warehouse to clinic
Temperature excursion
Distribution stop
What Holtium does
## The platform your security team runs the program on, tuned to how life sciences operates
Holtium brings your risks, controls, locations, and spending into one place, helps your team decide what to do next, and measures it all in dollars so leadership can act on it. A Holtium team works alongside yours, so you get the analysis without building it.
[Get a demo](https://holtium.com/get-a-demo?hsLang=en) [Get your Snapshot](https://holtium.com/get-your-snapshot?hsLang=en)
Holtium Hub Meridian Biosciences
Dashboard Locations Risks Controls Roadmap Reports
Annualized exposure
$28.6M −$2.1M this quarter
Sites
46
Risks tracked
9
Controls
58
Top exposure by risk
Product diversion, cold chain lanes$9.4M
Research IP exposure, labs$6.8M
Regulatory exposure, GMP plants$5.1M
Roadmap
Cold chain monitoring rolloutIn progress
Carrier vetting programTo do
Access control upgrade, R&D labDone
Risk register
Control mapping
Roadmap & What-If
Your risk register covers the risks this industry actually carries: theft and diversion in the supply chain, violence at patient-facing sites, research security at labs, regulatory exposure at GMP facilities, and interruption of the cold chain. Build it in the platform, or bring in the one you already have.
Risk register
Theft and diversion, supply chain$9.4MCritical
Research security, labs$6.8MHigh
Interruption of the cold chain$5.2MMedium
Regulatory exposure, GMP facilities$5.1MMedium
Violence, patient-facing sites$2.1MLow
Control mapping connects every control you already run, badge readers, guard posts, cameras, visitor management, cold chain monitoring, and vetted carriers, to the risks it reduces and the sites it covers, so you can see that the plant is well protected while two trial sites are carrying more exposure than anyone had written down.
Controls, mapped
Badge readers3 risks · 42 sites
Guard posts2 risks · 18 sites
Cameras4 risks · 46 sites
Visitor management3 risks · 24 sites
Cold chain monitoring2 risks · 12 sites
Vetted carriers1 risk · 9 sites
The roadmap turns decisions into tasks with owners, budgets, and tracking, and the What-If simulator shows the effect of a decision before you commit a dollar to it, such as vetting carriers on a theft-prone lane versus upgrading access control at a lab, so prioritization across your footprint is an evidenced decision rather than an instinct.
What-If simulator
Vet carriers, theft-prone lane−$1.6M
Upgrade access control, R&D lab−$0.7M
Roadmap: 9 tasks · 3 owners · Q3 budget tracked In progress
The number
## A dollar figure your CFO will question, built to survive the questioning
We start with your baseline, the risk each site would face with nothing but doors, walls, and locks, then subtract what your current controls already prevent. What remains is your exposure today, broken into the losses behind it, such as replacing a stolen load, the production time an inspection finding costs, and the competitive advantage lost when research is compromised.
It is built on recognized standards and loss data, the same quantitative discipline used in cyber, operational risk, and engineering. It begins as a range rather than a false-precise figure and sharpens as we verify your controls, and every figure traces back to what drove it.
Each quarter, leadership gets an executive risk report that reads like finance: where exposure stands across the footprint, what moved it, and what comes next.
Exposure breakdown
Inherent Risk Exposure
Losses Avoided
Residual Risk Exposure
Inherent, losses avoided, and residual risk exposure, split into loss types. Life sciences sample data.
\[Approved quote pending\]
Director of Global Security, publicly traded biopharmaceutical company
Low lift
## Your site assessments and control inventories are the input, not wasted work
You share what you already track, in any format: partner provider assessments, spreadsheets, guard post orders, insurance schedules. We map it to your risks and sites for you, and most teams are up and running within weeks. Your job is to review and confirm, not to do the heavy lifting.
[Get a demo](https://holtium.com/get-a-demo?hsLang=en)
FAQ
## Questions life sciences teams ask
### How do you put a dollar figure on risk across labs, plants, and trial sites?
We model each risk at each lab, plant, trial site, and lane using recognized standards and loss data, the same quantitative discipline used in cyber, operational risk, and engineering. The figure starts as a range, sharpens as your controls are verified, and always traces back to what drove it, so your team can defend it in front of a CFO or a board.
### Does this help with FDA and cGMP inspection readiness?
Holtium is not a compliance tool, but it keeps the evidence inspections ask about in one place: which controls exist at which sites, what condition they are in, what is on the roadmap, and which risks leadership formally accepted and why. Teams use that record to answer auditors with documentation instead of recollection.
### We already have site risk assessments from a partner provider. Do we start over?
No. Existing assessments are exactly the input the platform wants. We ingest them, map the findings to risks, controls, and sites, and your team reviews and confirms. The work you have paid for becomes the starting picture instead of a drawer of PDFs.
### How long until we see a risk picture across all our sites?
Most teams are up and running within weeks. You share what you already track, we structure and map it, and the first quantified picture covers your full footprint, from research labs to distribution, rather than one pilot site.
### How does this cover theft and diversion on pharma lanes?
Lanes and carriers are modeled alongside your sites, so diversion risk is priced where it actually sits: at the dock, in carrier vetting, and on high-value routes. For cargo theft across a broader distribution network, see [Holtium for Logistics](https://holtium.com/industries/logistics?hsLang=en).
## See what your exposure is worth across your footprint
You stay in charge of the program. We do the analysis, so you get the evidence without building it.
[Get a demo](https://holtium.com/get-a-demo?hsLang=en) [Get your Snapshot](https://holtium.com/get-your-snapshot?hsLang=en)
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