How Therapy-Based Supply Chain Helps Life Sciences Firms Grow Business
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Life Sciences Review | Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Life sciences companies recognize that their supply chain is a strategic element, and they are getting ready to adapt and enhance their supply chain capabilities to meet the demands of the new world.
FREMONT, CA: Life Sciences supply chain executives are functioning within an exceedingly complex environment. Running a modern-day supply chain involves sailing through many silos, conflicting priorities, lack of visibility, talent scarcity, and inflexible technology. Innovative technology players are penetrating the life sciences market and collaborating effectively with drug and device manufacturers. The recent convergence in the medical product sector has offered state-of-the-art devices, as product orientation is moving to a service orientation. Leading pharmaceutical companies are acquiring biologics and therapy companies to widen their businesses and diversify their portfolios. Know more here.
Life Sciences firms now have the opportunity to learn from SaaS – Software as a Service, IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service and consider their portfolio product as a service. In the therapy-based value chain, some bio-pharma firms invest in R & D and manufacture therapies in their collection centers in several countries.
The manufacturing strategy is make-to-stock, and logistics comprises a cold chain. A typical period for the whole supply chain duration from collection to infusion can vary between 10-12 months. There are technology leaders who offer a custom suite of applications to handle the entire customer experience journey and intelligent analytics to manage processes, including chain of identity and chain of custody for the patient’s drug track and trace.
To reduce cycle time, cost and enhance operational efficiency, the network that facilitates the buy-sell relationship can play a key role in this value chain. Sample collection centers will need help with onboarding into the business network, after which they can participate like suppliers or a contracting firm. They can seamlessly exchange relevant documents as attachments directly with relevant manufacturers. The network should also help the customer collaboration process for collecting patient details and adhering to HIPAA regulations. Life sciences manufacturers are scaling and reaching countries worldwide, trying to find new apheresis centers in each country working with local hospital chains.
