The pharmaceutical supply chain is complicated, and pharmaceutical firms must handle the most prevalent difficulties to provide patients with the required pharmaceuticals as quickly as possible.
The pharmaceutical supply chain is the process through which prescription drugs are made and distributed to patients. However, the supply chain network is extremely complicated, necessitating numerous processes to guarantee pharmaceuticals are available and accessible to patients.
Manufacturers, wholesale distributors, and pharmacy benefit managers are among the many parties engaged in the pharmaceutical supply chain (PBM).
Pharmaceutical firms face huge stakes in such a complicated procedure. Incorrectly supplied drugs impact the company’s reputation, customer happiness, and prospective profit. An inefficient supply chain may potentially impede patients’ healing processes and harm public health.
The pharmaceutical supply chain has unique issues, such as lack of supply chain visibility, drug counterfeiting, cold-chain shipping, and rising prescription drug prices, which can significantly increase out-of-pocket patient costs.
In the following article, Aseda Chemicals and Equipment Ltd breaks down the fundamentals of the pharmaceutical supply chain to uncover strategies for overcoming the most common challenges and ways to get patients consistent access to their medications.
How Does the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Work?
At its most basic, the pharmaceutical supply chain consists of five processes that guarantee medication inventory is immediately available for delivery to providers and patients.
Those five steps are:
1. Pharmaceuticals originate in manufacturing sites
2. Are transferred to wholesale distributors
3. Stocked at retail, mail-order, and other types of pharmacies
4. Pharmacy benefit management businesses negotiate prices and process quality and usage management screens
5. Pharmacy-dispensed medications are eventually given to and consumed by patients
Researchers note that there are many variations in this basic structure of the pharmaceutical supply chain, largely due to the constantly evolving players in the supply chain.
The pharmaceutical supply chain network runs smoothly and efficiently thanks to the important actors. Manufacturers, wholesale distributors, pharmacies, and PBMs are among those involved.
TOP PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES
Despite its success, the pharmaceutical supply chain confronts several hurdles.
All businesses with an efficient supply chain follow a four-step process: demand management, inventory management and distribution, secondary production planning and scheduling, and primary manufacturing.
The global information analytics business touched on various challenges of this process, such as lack of coordination, inventory management, absent demand information, human resource dependency, order management, temperature control, and shipment visibility.
For example, the “Forrester effect” is a business technique to analyze any supply chain disruptions and is a vital business step. But the Forrester effect is seen at the primary manufacturing site, which presents a challenge because it is the least responsive part of the supply chain.
This makes it difficult for businesses to properly address challenges such as supply shortages, tenders for national supplies, and epidemics.
Researchers have mentioned various strategies for mitigating disruptive consequences, such as financial mitigation, operation mitigation, and operational contingencies.
Mitigation methods are when the company takes action ahead of disruption and bears the expense of the action regardless of whether the disruption occurs. The literature on supply chain disruptions examines operational methods such as inventory management, multiple sourcing, and production flexibility.
Researchers from the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine revealed more specific difficulties, such as unpredictability in the pipeline of new medications. Specifically, which medications will be effective in trials and what dosages and therapies would be most beneficial.
PWC also published research this year stating that to fulfil the market’s expanding needs, the pharmaceutical supply chain must undergo a “radical makeover.”
According to academics, the dramatic makeover involves more diversified product types and therapies with shorter lifecycles, new methods for reviewing, approving, and monitoring medications, a greater emphasis on outcomes, new models of delivering healthcare, and a variety of other changes.
Overall, the pharmaceutical supply chain is critical for patients to obtain their prescriptions without stress or barriers. Despite the fact that the supply chain confronts several problems, businesses may take the required steps to ensure a flawless procedure from product creation to patient delivery.
