Sourcing: Critical factor in drug manufacturing
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To succeed in tomorrow’s highly competitive environment, pharmaceutical producers should integrate their sourcing strategies into the very early stages of product development, and realize that an effective supply-chain strategy is critical to future growth. So says Dr. Enrico Polastro, a vice president with international consulting firm Arthur D. Little. Based on ADL’s years of studying pharmaceutical manufacturing, Polastro underscores the increasing importance of supply management to pharmaceutical producers. “Supply chain management is one of the key success factors” in pharmaceutical manufacturing, says Polastro. “It’s much more critical for generic companies, given that the impact of cost of goods sold is substantially higher than with innovative drugs,” he says. “In the generic sector, sourcing can be a make-or-break factor.” For what he terms “innovative” drug makers, Polastro identifies key supply chain management criteria as “effective time to market, given that the development cycles are getting compressed. Companies are aiming to reduce development cycles from about 90 months to about 70. At the same time, production processes are becoming increasingly complex. Having timely access to a viable bulk production process is critical.” More : purchasing.com |