Pharma companies told to focus on supply chain issues

Europe's largest pharmaceuticals companies have been targeted as among those not paying enough attention to issues surrounding the procurement and supply chain.

A new report from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) has shone a startling light down on the UK FTSE 100, highlighting the fact that despite a volatile global economy and huge natural disasters seen this year, some of the country's biggest firms are not paying close enough attention to the sector.

It found that over a three year period from 2008 to 2010, FTSE 100 firms had on average increased their focus on the supply chain by 14 per cent, a starkly different percentage from the attention that has been paid to manage risk, skills, sustainability and even bonuses.

However, the CIPS stressed that supply chain is closely linked to how fragile the global economy gets and called upon major companies to look closely at the issues that surround the sector in their next annual reports.

Encouragingly, businesses in the pharma and biotech sector were among the top to mention supply chain, procurement and purchasing in their annual reports over the three years. However, they were still notably behind the aero and auto sector, food and drink, and utilities sectors, while the retail and consumer industries paid the most attention to the issue.

This, observed David Noble, chief executive of the CIPS, is largely down to the fact that the retail sector's bottom line is heavily influenced on the good management of supply chains.

He noted that some of the increased focus on the supply chain lies down to the natural disasters that the world has seen in the past 12 months.

"Recent disruption caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami prompted some urgent refocusing on the resilience of supply chains," he commented.

The report examined the annual reports of AstraZeneca, Glaxosmithkline, Shire and Smith & Nephew and found an encouraging sign from the pharma industry regarding the focus they have put on emerging markets.

Does Your Supply Chain need a Health-Check?

Siemens are a big name in medical and healthcare devices. Whilst innovative technology and robust products are vital, even the best go wrong, so with that in mind Siemens made sure they had repair and spare parts suppliers as close as possible – even under their own roof!

Of course a system like this brings many logistical challenges and the man tasked with overcoming them is Dr. Philipp Schiegg, Director of Customer Services, Material Logistics and Business Development. We caught up with him ahead of the LogiMed conference and asked him to tell us more…

Q: What is the most radical step you have taken to transform your supply chain over the past twelve months?

We have implemented strategic partnerships and innovative collaboration models with our repair suppliers. For example, we locate our suppliers as close as possible or even directly inside our Distribution Centres to perform repairs.

Q: What were you looking to achieve and were your objectives met?

We were looking to achieve the following objectives:

• Increase performance, e.g. supplier lead time, supplier delivery performance
• Reduce cost, e.g. working capital cost
• Reduce CO2 emissions

Interestingly, whilst these objectives may look at odds, they in actual fact do not contradict each other. On the contrary, we were able to obtain significant improvements in all categories.

Q: What are your top three supply chain priorities for the next eighteen months and why?

• To further increase transparency, reduce complexity, and streamline processes  
• Further push the adoption of end-to-end supply chain solutions to support proactive communication with customers
• Optimize our supply chain footprint to enable the launch of new services and, as a result, increase overall customer loyalty

Q: How do you view the European medical device market transforming over the next five years and how do you think will this impact pharmaceutical supply chain management?

The strong growth in Emerging Markets needs to be addressed, with adequate products, solutions, and processes made available. They require local value-add and responsibility that needs to be established in these markets. Supply Chain Management has plays active part in this scenario, by providing a footprint that enables various and differentiated delivery models, for example: global-to-global, local-for-regional and local-for-global.

Q: What are the key supply chain trends you see emerging across the industry?

From our perspective, we see an increased need to provide differentiated and more customer-centric supply chain solutions. That means to shift from “one size fits all” approaches regarding logistics performance to methods where we offer different service levels for different customer segments. These service levels may vary, for example, regarding logistics performance, speed, cost / price, and additional value adding services.

ProcureCon Pharma taking place in Zurich in February 28th to 29th 2012 will discuss the importance of supply chain in emerging markets further as well as the problem facing pharmaceutical sourcing, pharma outsourcing and offshoring. Follow this link to find out more www.procurecon-pharma.com 

Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing and API Sourcing in Central Europe and the Balkan States 2011

Pharmaceutical contract manufacturing and API sourcing in Central Europe and the Balkan states 2011 is the latest report providing an in-depth analysis for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing and API sourcing in six Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria and three Balkan states: Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The report examines current and future trends in contract manufacturing in the whole of the region and describes key drivers and barriers for contract manufacturing in each country. 

http://www.justmaps.org/

With the growing market trends for pharmaceutical outsourcing, the region of Central Europe and the Balkans is becoming increasingly competitive to China and India. As a result many companies in the region offer attractive product and service offerings for contract manufacturing and API sourcing, based on their experience in the market, their specialized area of operations and developed product and service portfolio.  The report draws on comparisons with other regions, including the Far East and others. 

The report identifies the most attractive companies in the region, providing detailed company profiles, financial data and production capacity for each company, alongside an easy to use map with manufacturer locations in the region.  Each country is examined in terms of its strengths and weaknesses and their attractiveness for contract manufacturing and API sourcing in the region.  

Key Highlights:

        Market analysis for 2011, current and future trends, key drivers and barriers, market data

        Country specific evaluation of competitiveness and attractiveness for contract manufacturing and API sourcing in the region

        Regional benchmark analysis: Central Europe versus Far East

        Opportunities for company contract manufacturing and sourcing in the region

        Detailed profiles of companies offering contract manufacturing

        Manufacturer location map

Outsourcing: Debunking the myths and unveiling the realities - pharma sourcing

Firmly entrenched misconceptions surround outsourcing, and they are holding many companies back from maximising the potential benefits from this fundamentally important tool.

Despite misunderstandings and negative perceptions, the plain truth is that companies of all sizes can benefit from outsourcing, from one-man bands to major multinationals-from the pharmaceutical to construction industries. Decades of experience across industries, sectors and geographic boundaries have generated a wealth of specialist expertise and made a wide range of services available to those seeking support. For this reason alone, it is worth exploding the myths and taking a long hard look at the reality of outsourcing.

Figures released this week by TPI state that investment in Pharmaceutical Outsourcing is down % from $6.3 bn to $2.6 bn, this reinforces Everest Research’s comments earlier this year: “The spike we saw in 2010 was largely the result of pent up demand from the recessionary economy. However, the business drivers for outsourcing adoption remain and continue to evolve. Cost pressures, a changing pharma ecosystem, emerging markets and other market forces are continuing to drive the market. Moving forward, we expect to see an increase in sourcing of drug development and research, supply chain, data management and analytics functions.”

Perhaps the most enduring misconception is that outsourcing is all about labour arbitrage. Its most vehement critics accuse employers of destroying well-paid jobs and replacing them with less expensive outsourced labour. Yet this misses the whole point about adding value to a service by leveraging the expertise and resources of specialist external suppliers to the wider benefit of an organisation. Outsourcing enhances the capabilities of a company to deliver a service or skill set more efficiently and more effectively than could ordinarily be achieved internally. If you are CEO of a company like Nokia, for example, it might be worth your while having a large human resources department. But if you are chief executive of a company with 200 or fewer people, you may be unable to afford hiring someone with world expertise in HR.

One of the most invidious myths about outsourcing internationally is that it damages domestic business. For this reason, some believe that outsourcing business exclusively to domestic companies is good for domestic business. The reality is that in today’s world economy, companies are always looking for ways to improve performance in order to release capital for the reinvestment needed for growth. To survive and thrive in this increasingly congested marketplace, businesses must remain competitive. Outsourcing gives businesses access to the best supplier services, fostering growth, which in turn benefits the domestic economy.

Speakers and sponsors flock to participate at ProcureCon Pharma 2012

The team behind ProcureCon Europe recently announced the launch of an exciting new pharma sourcing event, focusing specifically on the issues and challenges facing senior pharma procurement practitioners in the biopharma space. This two-day pharma outsourcing event, entitled ProcureCon Pharma, will take place in Zürich on 28^th-29^th February 2012.

http://impressionstudios.com/website/Biotechnology-Pharmaceuticals
-Web-Design-Services-Los-Angeles.php

ProcureCon Pharma 2012 is the latest offering from the ProcureCon team, who already hold three major industry events within the European procurement community: ProcureCon Europe, ProcureCon Indirect and the ProcureCon CPO Roundtables.

The ProcureCon Pharma agenda has been written with CPOs very much front of mind, and the production process has been guided at every stage by an independent Advisory Board – this goes some way to explaining how this boutique pharma sourcing conference has managed to attract so many high level speakers, including:

·          Ashley Readshaw, Chief Procurement Officer, AstraZeneca

·          Jean-Philippe Collin, VP, Chief Procurement Officer, Sanofi –Aventis

·          Susannah Gooch, Regional Director of Global Purchasing - Europe and EMEA, Abbott

·          Mark Hollison, Procurement Director, Napp Pharmaceuticals

·          Dr Volker Hartmann, Head of Corporate Purchasing, Boehringer Ingelheim

·          Imtiaz Naqui, Head of Purchasing UK, Teva Pharmaceuticals

·          Paula Gildert, Head of Development  Strategic Sourcing, Novartis

·          Nick Welby, Head of Operations Procurement, AstraZeneca

·          Richard Pompe, Group R&D Purchasing Director, Mylan

·          Alan Goring, Indirect Sourcing Director EMEA, Bristol-Myers Squibb

·          Claudia Knowlton-Chike, General Manager of Global Logistics, GE Healthcare

·          Robert Saini, Director of Procurement, Astellas US Out-of-industry expert

·          Paul Massih, Vice President, Contracting and Procurement, Shell

·          Laurent Chevallier, Procurement Director - CMO & Emerging Markets, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals

·          Joe Agresta, VP Procurement, Johnson & Johnson