LogiPharma Europe 2023: Ensuring Agility and Resilience

Moderator Thorsten Roggenbuck, DHL’s Global LLP product lead; Eme Luth, Gilead’s executive director and global head of ERP and corporate functions, IT; Frédéric Zwahlen, SVP, technical operations and supply chain, Vifor Pharma; Eric Thomas, VP global supply chain, BioMérieux; and Steen Mørch, VP, supply chain and manufacturing, Novo Nordisk, participated in this morning’s keynote panel discussion in Lyon, France, titled “Driving Agility and Resilience: How Can You Derive Actionable Insights from Your End-To-End Suppliers to Maximize Adaptability and Secure Your Global Supply Chain Networks?”

Roggenbuck kicked off the chat by providing the audience with a breakdown of agile resilience countermeasures, including:

· Supply line relocation

· Business continuity planning

· Balanced supplier portfolio

· Critical supplier management

Luth remarked that the pharma industry, in her opinion, provides “the most dynamic place from a tech perspective,” and that Gilead—which relies on partnerships with contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), since it only manufacturers 30% of its products—is focusing on speed with quality.

Forming partnerships as it pertains to establishing supply chain resilience was a theme that rose to the top during this presentation. Thomas commented that trust at a personal level is important to have in these relationships, especially when it comes to building technology (the predictive end-to-end and agility elements in particular) and connections.

When the question of what makes a good partnership was raised, Mørch, who predicted there will most likely be fewer of them in the future, noted that they should meet the following criteria:

· Trust

· Co-developing services

· Full transparency

· A catalogue of services for parties to further develop

He also acknowledged the need for a change in mindset: we tend to believe that data is just available, but rather it should be treated as an asset, one that clients may need to be willing to pay for.

Another way to increase agility is the shift from a global supply chain setup to a more regionalized approach. Thomas noted that this has become quite useful in helping navigate around potential trade barriers, such as those in China, for example.

Naturally, Mørch pointed out, regionalization results in offering sustainable efforts, where planes can limit emissions when it comes to delivery of products and is in Thomas’ eyes, synergistic, as after all, “we’re helping the world become a healthier place.”