Top trends shaping pharma supply chains in 2022

After recent shocks including the pandemic and war in Ukraine, the pharma sector is finding new ways to ensure it delivers medical products safely to their intended destination. Here we look at the four trends shaping global pharma supply chains today.

Control tower technology

So-called because of its similarity to the functions of an airport control tower, pharmaceutical companies use control tower technology as a centralized hub of information for their supply chains, collecting real-time data from different sources, adding it to a database and providing a readable view of events to operators. This includes information related to temperature and travel conditions as well as location, along with information provided by couriers.  

Aðalheiður Pálmadóttir, Vice-President of Business Development at supply chain management company Controlant, says: “Milestones for courier delivery are fed directly into our system, so that we know when it is at the airport, when it is handed from the courier to the airport’s ground handler, and when it is on the flight.”

Packaging automation

Secure packaging plays a crucial role in protecting the integrity of a drug product and facilitating authentication. This has become especially important since the Covid-19 pandemic, due to the increased numbers of vaccines and other medications being shipped all over the world.

Automating the process makes a multiproduct packaging operation faster and easier to manage, as well as reducing the possibility of error. At Pharma IQ’s recent event on manufacturing automation, Dave Berry, Grand Challenge and Digital Strategy Lead at Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre said, “No one wants to be the one who packages the wrong thing and spoils 68 million vaccines. You are generally using a common platform to control a large piece of equipment that can do multiple things. That means it is less likely that there will be errors because you are going through the same business process, just barcoding different boxes. The system will tell you if it is wrong, so it makes it easier to train operators and do their job better.”

Sustainability

Reducing environmental impact is vital across all industries, but for pharma specifically this takes on added importance as it is responsible for roughly 50 percent more greenhouse emissions than the automotive industry.

Within the supply chain, packaging that ends up in the landfill is a major issue. During a recent webinar hosted by Pharma Logistics IQ, Amar Chahal,
Senior Vice President for Global Marketing, Strategy and Corporate Development at Cold Chain Technologies, said: “If you are trying to find one package that will meet all your needs, reducing your risk to zero, making sure you are accounting for all weather conditions and all traffic delays, you will make it bigger, bulkier and put a lot of gels in it. That is not going to help out from an environmental standpoint.”

Using technology to make predictions can help with assessments regarding shipping conditions and packaging needs. “Once you know all of those factors, you do not  need an over-engineered package. You can choose something simpler that will not [negatively] impact the environment,” Chahal added.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

AI, along with machine learning (ML), can be used to analyze data and conduct scenario modeling to predict events that could disrupt the supply chain, including adverse weather, increased demand and potential bottlenecks. Operators can then find ways to avoid these disruptions.

AI is also key to improving visibility across the supply chain from end-to-end, from assessing what the packaging and processing needs are in the warehouse to calculating carbon emissions.

Quick links

• Pfizer to supply all its medicines to low-income countries for no profit
• Top three technologies transforming pharma supply chains today
• How pre-qualified packaging increases speed-to-market for pharma products

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