LogiPharma Europe 2023: Digitalizing Patient Centricity

Moderator Kelsey Carvell, partner at Deloitte; Didier Jourdan, associate VP, global supply chain, Sanofi; Javier Martin, SVP, global strategy and development operations, Grünenthal; and Jens Schader, CVP, global supply chain management, Boehringer Ingelheim, partook in LogiPharma Europe’s keynote panel this morning in Lyon, France, titled “Digitalizing Patient Centricity: How Can You Leverage Innovative Tech to Ensure High Service Levels in the Face of Increasingly Complex Supply Chains?”

Carvell initiated the discussion by sharing with attendees a question that patient centricity should answer: How do we achieve optimal outcomes for the most patients, with the lowest environmental impact? In other words, it should address:

· Personalized packaging and delivery

· Broad access

· Environmental access

The panel then began to address various questions, including:

1. Personalized medicine. Where would you place your company on the spectrum of involvement with personalized medicine, and what are the factors your company is evaluating as it develops a patient-centric strategy around these products?

2. Segmentation. How are you managing to drive access and patient-centric operations in lower-volume and/or harder-to-reach regions?

3. New supply chains. How is the next generation of customized medicines—such as cell and gene therapy (CGT)—driving patient-centric operations across the industry?

4. Resiliency and security. How are you building resilience across your supply chain and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) to guarantee availability of medicines, given demand fluctuations in key markets?

5. Balance with sustainability. Can you provide an example of how your company is aligning patient-centric strategy with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals?

Below are highlights from a selection of the aforementioned questions:

Personalized medicine

Jourdan noted that Sanofi has a long heritage and the company’s focus and activities in the personalized medicine field are accelerating. Boehringer Ingelheim, said Schader, is more primary care-focused, but wants to explore personalized medicine as part of its pipeline.

He noted that it’s important to remember that one size does not fit all when it comes approaches in personalized medicine. For patient-centric models to be effective, Schader added, they should

be powered by collaboration with patients and other stakeholders. Essentially, centralized planning and seeing the process through (end-to-end) is a must. For Grünenthal, a German-based pharma specialized in pain management, Martin said it strives to ensure that the key factors impacting patient centricity are decided early on in the clinical development process.

Resiliency and security

To Martin, supply chain analysis is critical—companies should set out to determine their weakest element and address it head-on. For instance, in Grünenthal’s case, it is currently certifying its LATAM facilities to also supply to Europe. These are the two main regions that the company supplies to.

Balance with sustainability

In efforts to protect the environment, Sanofi’s global health unit aims to improve access to care in 40 of the lowest-income nations via healthcare access models that provide sustainable impact, Jourdan mentioned. In fact, upon further research, the company supports ministries of health and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their transition to universal health coverage. Further, the business has launched various sustainability goals, including eco-packaging for 100% of new products by 2025, and by 2027, vaccines that are blister free.

Boehringer Ingelheim has pledged to becoming carbon neutral in company operations by 2030—Schader also alluded to the importance of shifting to smaller and reusable devices for patient-centricity purposes.