Distributed Trust Using Blockchain for Efficient Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

With traditional ERP systems, there is a lack of networking among suppliers, partners, and logistics providers. So, there is a need to have a holistic view of production and movement of goods from production to last mile delivery. The physical and digital supply chains need to be integrated to ensure secure supply chains that promote business excellence, collaboration among stakeholders, and reduce costs. The high-level view over their supply chains allows them to function better in a multi-channel world. It also helps them identify where to reduce stock without compromising customer service. Otherwise, it leads to a delay in delivery, counterfeit products, thefts, fraud, and cyberpiracy, which may lead to lawsuits and losing of brand image. The tacit function of supply chain management is to provide tracking of specific goods in the supply chain. So, it is imperative to leverage the blockchain technology stack to map multi-enterprise value networks and enable connected multi-modal networks.

Knowledge Sharing Barriers Affecting Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Performance

The pharmaceutical supply chain is one of the most complex supply chains in the world. The primary objective of this chapter is to analyze the role of knowledge sharing barriers in supply chain performance. The chapter will explore significant knowledge sharing barriers that might deter the performance of a pharmaceutical supply chain. This chapter is expected to provide the twofold contribution to the academicians and practitioners. Firstly, it will socialize the importance of knowledge sharing barriers and the role they can play in deterring the performance of a pharmaceutical supply chain, and secondly, the prioritized ranking of the identified knowledge sharing barriers is expected to aid the policymakers and managers to understand the relative importance of the knowledge sharing barriers and design their knowledge management strategies accordingly.

Characteristics of Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

The pharmaceutical supply chain is presently a noteworthy research topic in process operations and administration. A lot of research has been embraced on office area and configuration, stock and circulation arranging, limit and generation arranging, and point-by-point planning. Just a little extent of this work straightforwardly addresses the issues confronted in the pharmaceutical division. The pharmaceutical industry is facing extraordinary difficulties caused by a maturing population, the expanding expense of medicinal services, the priority given by the governments to bring down the cost of medications, boundaries to a passage in developing markets, and the more extensive reception of non-specific medications. These are quite recently a portion of the many difficulties making weight on the overall revenue of pharmaceutical firms. Expanded expenses of R&D and a diminished number of affirmed sedates additionally demonstrates that the lion's share of prescription, which is anything but difficult to find, has just been found.

Sustainable Supply Chain as a Part of CSR Strategy

Corporate social responsibility policies have become an important management strategy in companies. This sector tries to respond to stakeholders' needs while developing socially responsible business activities and sustainable values. A sustainable supply chain is an integral part of CSR strategy in a pharmaceutical industry. Purchased goods and services have to present high standards and quality. As international companies have many suppliers and contractors, it is important to conduct and promote worked out values among all business partners. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the corporate social responsibility values of Polpharma Group. The chapter describes the long-term strategy of sustainability in Polpharma and the responsibilities of Polpharma in all business sectors. The most essential part will be the description of the process of sustainable supply chain formation. The chapter will describe the implementation of a code of conduct among suppliers. The case study in this chapter will be based on Polpharma, one of the largest Polish pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Supply Chain Management

The pharmaceutical industry quite broadly encompasses a large and varied number of logistics and supply chain activities. The industry, as a whole, relies on some standard benchmarking indicators such as months of on-hand inventory and inventory turns; however, the existing metrics do not allow for idiosyncrasies of the industry or provide adequately detailed insight into the key factors that make a pharmaceutical supply chain excellence. Over 75% of the markup on pharmaceutical products takes place at the manufacturer. This causes inventory-carrying costs to increase dramatically once the distribution segments of the supply chain purchase the product. Wholesalers and large pharmacy chains suffer high carrying costs on the final product. Inside pharmaceutical supply chains, companies must also face issues of product expiration and limited shelf lives. Seasonal and short shelf life products such as flu vaccines leave companies without the opportunity to redistribute or reallocate product in order to meet demand.

Pharmaceutical Development Process

The most significant attribute of the pharmaceutical industry is its creations and advancements. The innovation of new drugs is necessary for improving the quality of human life and duration. Pharmaceutical drug development is a time-consuming, costly, and crucial process. The essential goal of drug development is to discover a dosage or dosage scale of a drug application that is both efficient in curing the desired disease and safe. Clinical trials including newly developed drugs that are directed in a progression of successive steps called stages to decide the security and efficacy of the new drug moreover the viability against the targeted diseases. There are four phases through which clinical trials are conducted. An investigational item can be assessed in more than one stage all the while in various clinical trials, and some clinical trials may cover two unique stages.

Product Lifecycle in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The composite of the present pharmaceutical industry requires more effective medication improvement and generation. A product lifecycle (PLC) is the progression of stages from the product's production to the world until its last withdrawal from the market. Product lifecycle comprises various stages that a product must possess in its lifespan, for example, launching, growth, maturity, and decline stage. While each stage brings huge changes, a progression of procedures for the administration of product lifecycle is required. Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a precise, controlled idea for overseeing and creating products and product-related data. Enhanced patient consistency, income development, extended clinical advantages, and faster market dispatch are among the primary utilization of product lifecycle management. To create a viable and productive product lifecycle management program many qualities are viewed like promising start, vital arranging clear authority, supporting information and abilities, readiness for changing tenets of government and associations.

Global Macrotrends in Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is trending in business decisions to demonstrate financial impact, influence on the behavior of consumers, governments, and businesses. This impact is beyond geographies and industries. It must be understood how a trend's impact will manifest itself in an actionable business planning horizon. Most of the pharmaceutical industries believe that global trends will shape business decisions over the next 5 to 10 years. Each management team in the pharmaceutical industry works on the global forces shaping their strategic context. The collisions approach is a systematic way to capture trends in strategy that enables your leadership team to rapidly combine multiple trends, facts, and perspectives to identify the “market-shaping force” that has the power to significantly shift spending and profit pools. This chapter discusses the effective competition in the pharmaceutical industry in the implementation of new technologies and trends to contribute to broader solutions.

Logistics Thinking

The objective of this chapter is to create an introduction to all subsequent chapters of the book. This is a description of basics of logistics and logistics management used in every part of the supply chain, in every sector of the regional economies and the global economy. The primary research question to be answered is: What is the role of logistics in creation of the supply chain's success? The answer will allow for presenting logistics as a main element of supply chain management in the current global economic ecosystem. It will be a guideline for the readers about how to think about logistics support for all discussed functional areas of supply chain management mentioned in the following parts of the book.

Collaboration in the Mexican Pharmaceutical Industry

The objective of this chapter is to analyze the collaboration networks of the Mexican pharmaceutical industry from an institutional approach. The pharmaceutical sector at a global level is characterized by a high dynamism in innovation and collaboration. One could say that the high value recorded by the industry is due to this. However, in Mexico, the lack of efficient institutions that ensure the appropriation of profits for investment in research within the industry is not perceived; this situation leads us to the next question, What are the dynamics of collaboration between pharmaceutical companies in Mexico? To answer this question, a database was created that identifies the alliances of the companies belonging to the Canifarma. Finally, a comparison of the number of registrations and patent applications between eight of these companies is made to measure the results of this situation.