The supply chain for pharmaceuticals presents risks and difficulties for suppliers as well as customers. However, managing pharmaceutical supply chains in the context of a health-conscious society has several challenges because it involves numerous important players and stakeholders to effectively deliver critically important medications that save lives for patients.
The process of locating raw materials, producing, distributing, and giving patients their medications is all part of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Since there are many different parties involved in the pharmaceutical supply chain network, it is necessary to carefully coordinate and follow regulatory rules at every turn to guarantee that patients receive safe and effective pharmaceuticals.
Pharma supply chain stakeholders
Raw material suppliers, drug company (บริษัทยา, term in Thai), regulatory bodies, wholesale distributors, pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), medical professionals, and patients are the main players in the pharmaceutical sector supply chain. Every stakeholder has an important role to play, and good coordination between them is necessary.
For pharmaceutical corporations, the stakes are very high in this complicated procedure. Drugs that are distributed incorrectly can damage a company’s brand, clientele, and prospective earnings. Several issues plague the pharmaceutical supply chain, including supply chain visibility, cold-chain shipping, medicine counterfeiting, and growing prescription drug prices that can dramatically raise patients’ out-of-pocket expenses.
Pharmaceutical supply chain: how does it function?
The following five pharmaceutical supply chain tactics, guarantee that medication inventory is easily accessible for distribution to patients and providers:
Production sites are used to create drugs.
Following that, they are given to wholesale distributors.
Pharmacies of all kinds, including mail-order and retail, carry the medications.
Pharmacy benefit management firms handle pharmaceuticals through quality and utilization management inspections and pricing negotiations.
Lastly, pharmacies give patients their prescriptions, which they take exactly as directed.
Scholars have observed that the fundamental framework of the pharmaceutical supply chain exhibits several modifications, primarily attributable to the dynamic actors involved. The essential participants in the pharmaceutical supply chain network enable its seamless and effective operation. PBMs, pharmacies, wholesale distributors, and manufacturers are some of these participants.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers: what are they?
Pharmaceutical producers seek to meet the pharmaceutical industry’s demand by offering a variety of completed products. The aforementioned producers bear the responsibility of dispensing medications either directly to drug wholesalers or to other kinds of pharmacies, such as hospital chains, mail-order and specialty pharmacies, retail chains, and specific health plans.
Pharmaceutical wholesale distributors: what are they?
Pharmaceutical products are bought by wholesale distributors from producers and supplied to a range of clients, such as pharmacies. Some wholesalers serve a broad spectrum of customers, while others focus on selling certain goods, such as biologics, or serving particular clientele.
What do drugstores do?
Because they act as the informational bridge connecting PBMs, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and wholesale distributors, pharmacies are the last link in the supply chain before medications are administered to patients. They may be the most important connection. Drugs are bought by pharmacies either directly from manufacturers or through distributors. Pharmacies are required to have a sufficient supply of pharmaceutical medicines in stock following product purchases and educate customers on how to take prescription medications safely and effectively.
