Pharma companies feeling ‘supply chain pain’, says UPS
pharmafile | June 26, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â supply chainÂ
Regulatory pressures are at the top of the list of supply chain concerns voiced by pharmaceutical manufacturers in an annual poll conducted by logistics firm UPS.
Among larger companies with more than $1 billion in sales, an increased regulatory burden was the top concern of 56% of respondents, while this factor topped the list for a third of smaller drugmakers.
The survey identified a number of factors that contribute to this rising regulatory burden, including concerns about counterfeiting and diversion, increased cross border controls and a rising number of temperature-sensitive products coming to the market.
"There are many market factors driving regulatory concerns, including a heightened focus around security and product safety, increasing global border controls and more products requiring special handling coming into the market," said Bill Hook, UPS vice president for global strategy, Healthcare Logistics.
A third of all the companies polled said product safety and security was their top concern, but UPS also found that most were unprepared for the implementation of mass serialisation and pedigree requirements considered to be a key factor in shoring up the supply chain from counterfeiting and diversion.
No large drugmaker said it was prepared for the serialisation, and less than half (48%) said they were planning any action to meet that requirement.
Meanwhile, more and more large pharmaceutical manufacturers are outsourcing business operations to improve efficiencies, including supply chain functions such as distribution and transport management, but the same cannot be said of their smaller counterparts.
Almost 60% of the larger pharma companies outsource distribution and transport management, and a quarter outsource their order-taking and customer service functions. In contrast, two thirds of smaller companies keep all their supply chain operations in-house, and of these just 3% plan to do so within the next two years.
"With increased pressures to innovate while cutting costs, many companies are turning to outsourcing as a way to gain efficiencies across the supply chain to better focus on core areas like R&D, marketing and acquisitions," said Hook.
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