Pharmaceutical / Medical Products
Supply Chain Consulting

Tompkins International develops pharmaceutical, medical product and healthcare-related supply chain solutions. We provide pharmaceutical consulting results in the areas of global logistics and supply chain strategy, physical distribution, channel optimization, packaging, regulatory compliance, supply chain systems, and organizational excellence.

Supply Chain Trends: Under Pressure

The human risks involved with the healthcare industry, particularly pharmaceuticals and medical products, raises the bar in visibility, performance, and in operating margins. All this adds to the pressure on supply chain leaders.

Globalization of the supply chain is creating a series of risks and challenges:

Globalization of the pharmaceutical and medical products markets has increased competition to maintain and expand market share and customer loyalty. Increased quality and safety responsibilities are adding pressure to increase inspections of both foreign and domestic operations.

In 2010, China overtook Japan to become the global #2 market for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Learn more about the pharmaceutical and medical products industry in China.

The Asia Opportunity: Do you know how to leverage the huge Asia opportunity? China and Asia present unique supply chain challenges as the region shifts from being the world's factory floor to a booming global marketplace. Learn more about Asia supply chain excellence.

Profit margins are being squeezed from other forces as well: Government cost controls, increased competition, increased tracking requirements and expiring patents are all factors that affect the bottom line in the pharmaceutical and medical products industry.

Furthermore, e-pedigree and serialization (2015) should not be viewed solely from a regulatory perspective as any serialized e-pedigree solution can have implications on product authentication, diversion control, recall management, returns processing and other critical pharmaceutical supply chain functions.

Recent mergers are changing the playing field: Whether it is a mega-merger or smaller acquisitions and licensing agreements, Big Pharma is evolving to bridge upcoming patent expirations until the next blockbuster discoveries are found.

Merging supply chains effectively is critical to achieving the projected savings, meeting regulatory requirements and the marketplace requirements. Along with mergers and acquisitions, this fast-paced market calls for external strategic market analysis plans to understand both competitors and technology.

Financial savings can be found throughout the Supply Chain: Internal savings including labor reduction, productivity, space consolidation, inventory optimization, and material use and waste management should be the focus on finding and implementing cost reduction measures.

In addition, reviewing the option of leveraging Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) to focus on core strengths and reduce internal costs is an industry best practice. However, the risks and trade-offs must be fully understood before outsourcing any particular business function.

The industry can better plan its implementation strategy of these requirements as a part of ongoing continuous improvements and upgrades. The implementation of best practices throughout the supply chain to improve performance and reduce operating cost is critical to profitability.

Tompkins International has over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical consulting, helping the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry reduce supply chain costs, improve speed and accuracy, and enhance customer service.

Tompkins International's pharmaceutical consultants focus on end-to-end supply chain solutions in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, with offices in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, including Technomic Asia, based in Shanghai, China, and Tompkins International EMEA, based in Germany.

Ask the Experts:
Send us your questions.

Learn More About Tompkins International

To learn more, simply complete our Information Request Form.