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the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are undergoing
Only with a properly
fundamental change. The environment that pharmaceutical
companies experience today presents challenges that must be met;
equally important is the need to consider the changes promised by
tomorrow’s world, and to prepare a 21st Century Supply Chain
Ecosystem that can cope with them. For many pharmaceutical
“
functioning supply
chain can any company
understand its customers and
firms, the supply chain has been considered to be a necessary but
thus maintain the right mix of
costly drain on resources. However, in contrast, the 21st Century
Supply Chain Ecosystem can be made to work for each
products and services to
pharmaceutical company and provide valuable insights and
respond to and satisfy
information to reduce time to market, enable innovation that is
tailored to the market’s needs and provide flexibility and support to
demands and expectations.
allow it to explore new markets and products faster and with more
agility. An effective supply chain fundamentally delivers reduced
operational cost through savings in inventory holdings, working
capital and improved supply chain security. It is also the company’s
link to the changing market and to its diverse array of partners; it is
an asset in its own right. Only with a properly functioning supply
chain can any company understand its customers and thus
maintain the right mix of products and services to respond to and
satisfy demands and expectations. Customer satisfaction is the
means to achieving product differentiation and brand loyalty in an
increasingly global and competitive marketplace, and is the only
way to sustain performance over many years to come.
No one strategy will be suitable for all pharma; there is no absolute
path of success for better performance. The route that
pharmaceutical companies take and their level of specialisation into
disease states and personalised forms of treatments are governed by
each company’s culture, priorities, portfolio and core competencies,
and tempered by the level of commitment of their management
teams to implementing change.
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Regardless of the approach
employed, for pharma to successfully make this transformation and
achieve lasting value, sustained profitability and greater
connectivity with the joined-up healthcare network, the current
‘20th century supply chain’ must be examined and re-invented. ■
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