PHARMACEUTICALS
‣ labour and high-cost regulation are intentioned with having the manufacturing base , but these come with a cost .” The opportunity , he agreed with Hicks , is largely on the integrated side of manufacturing novel medications , using more efficient technologies and requiring less material , less energy and – potentially - lower transportation costs , though this is traditionally a small element of the supply chain costs . As well as continuous manufacturing , additive manufacturing could be one for the future , “ But , again , these are very longterm goals that should be worked on , incentivised by governments and researched by universities and corporations . I see a future where novel drugs have a much more localised supply chain but that means a switch to automation .” For that reason , Boyd does not see reshoring producing a largescale return of manufacturing jobs to the US , as many imagine it might . In fact , automation is probably going to play a growing role in India and China , as it already has in other manufacturing industries there .
Crisis to opportunity
Big Pharma will continue to cite environmental quality as a differentiating point in their marketing campaigns and this will also be one of the key factors , as well as cost , location and track record , on which they choose suppliers and digital technology will be needed to demonstrate it . All of these will be critical for companies supplying the major regulated markets . “ Some of it will be enabled by policy , some by software , but a lot of work has to happen across for the industry for it to move forward ,” Boyd said . “ This could be the opportunity that comes out of the crisis : utilising tech to enable us to modernise the supply chain , on the innovative side in the first instance but later in generics as well . “ We seem to be very much stuck in a system where each stakeholder plays according to the rules of the game but it may be that the rules need to be changed for an actual increase in the robustness and diversification of the supply chain through reshoring or stockpiling to occur ,” Arias concluded . “ On the other hand , however , it seems that there is a genuine appetite for increased digitalisation of the supply chain for the simple reason that you would be able to gain a competitive advantage through being able to track supply and demand throughout the chain . We have a big macroeconomic challenge to achieve what politicians want us to achieve as an industry . “ So we do need more flexibility from regulators , and more political appetite from citizens and indeed politicians . And as an industry we should be thinking about what our end-users , patients and society as a whole , want . That means critical medicines that are available when they are needed but are also affordable and made by green processes . “ It sounds a tall order but it has never been easier to start implementing sophisticated systems to help us in terms of monitoring this . It ’ s much better to change the rules of the game than just point a finger at some of the players .” •
Extended supply chains have become vulnerable in a world where movement of goods has been slowed
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