Conclusion
So, what’s the bottom line? The sort of medicines Pharma makes is changing and the financial pressures it faces are increasing. Specialist therapies can’t generate the same economies of scale as mass manufacturing. Cash-strapped healthcare payers are also scrutinising outcomes much more rigorously and exploring new reimbursement mechanisms, while healthcare providers are developing care pathways to standardise and improve the treatment of disease. The supply chain is simultaneously becoming more important, as the medicines the industry makes get more complex and the opportunities for generating value from pure product offerings diminish. Biologics and personalised treatments are more difficult to manufacture and distribute than small molecules, and services will comprise a greater share of the economic value many companies create.
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We believe that, by 2020, most pharma companies will therefore have different supply chains for different product types. The precise routes they pursue will vary, depending on their portfolios, pipelines and expertise. But whichever road they take, they will need to get closer to patients, since reliable demand data is a prerequisite for making to order and intimate personal details are a prerequisite for making customised therapies. They will also have to provide a wide range of services to help patients comply with their medical regimens and monitor the effectiveness of their interventions – activities that have traditionally been the province of healthcare providers and payers. And they will have to ensure the healthcare packages they develop are fully integrated with the care pathways for every disease they address. The most successful pharma companies will be those that seize the initiative and start building agile, efficient supply chains – either virtual or physical – to support this vision. They will be those that use their supply chains to differentiate their brands and ‘go the final mile’, those that recognise information is the currency of the future.
PwC