'Maturity' Matters: Fortifying Two Key Cogs of Pharma Supply Chain

Echoing the sentiment expressed in our recently published Cold Chain Solutions eBook that explored the trends and highlights that came out ofLogiPharma Europe, this year's April show provided a unique forum for discussion and dialogue across the distribution and healthcare logistics landscape.

The event was again hosted at the Centre de Congrès de Lyon in Lyon, France, and as Jake Brown, LogiPharma’s sponsorship director, stated in its recap, it “continues to be the only event globally where you can meet all the key stakeholders within the life sciences supply chain.”

About 2,000 people attended the show's 24th installment, which featured numerous sessions revolving around the following themes:

• “Not another dashboard! How to infuse pulse into your supply chain operation.”
• “How can you transform digital capabilities in your temperature-controlled supply chain to improve visibility, quality, and reactivity?”
• “Why must our industry collaborate to reach its most ambitious sustainability goals by 2030 and what is required to meet them?
• “How can you implement scalable networks to overcome the challenges of complex supply chains for personalized therapies?”
• “Properly applying diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the life sciences supply chain.”

One of the above sessions—“How can you transform digital capabilities in your temperature-controlled supply chain to improve visibility, quality, and reactivity?”—particularly piqued my interest for covering the relationship between two of Pharma Commerce’s largest topics: product visibility in the supply chain and the cold chain specifically.

Tony Fonk, president and CEO of SpotSee, moderated the panel, and was joined by Amy Shortman, a logistics representative with DeSpir Logistics; Cesar Gil Martinez, director of procurement logistics, EMEA, Bayer; Tomas Fant, temperature-controlled logistics project lead, Pfizer; Marie Berranger, cold chain logistics project and launch manager, Galderma; and Linus Wollentz, senior manager, Envirotainer.

When asked what "digital maturity" meant to her, especially in terms of digital capabilities and temperature-controlled operations, Shortman mentioned that “digital maturity is really about understanding the value of the data that we’re feeding through those digital services provides. So it’s making sure that we understand how we’re using visibility and using that to really drive down risk and add value to the customer. What we’re seeing in the market in a general sense is that not all players within the supply chain ecosystem and logistics ecosystem are at the same level of digital maturity.”

These were words that truly resonated with me, being that they served as a reminder to all pharma stakeholders: never lose sight of adding value to the customer.

To read and view all our coverage from LogiPharma Europe—plus other past shows—including special video interviews, please visit pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/latest-conference.