Walking the pharma supply chain tightrope requires more than precision

Between 2023 and 2025, hundreds of thousands of Type 2 diabetes patients were incapable to entree semaglutide owed to off-label prescriptions for the drugs successful individuals seeking value loss. The GLP-1RA shortage exposed large fragilities successful cause manufacturing, though it is 1 of a plethora of pressures that tin impact planetary pharma proviso chains astatine immoderate time.

2025 was a peculiarly volatile twelvemonth for planetary proviso networks of medicines. US President Donald Trump carried retired large commercialized betterment via the imposition of tariffs, with a semipermanent extremity of onshoring overmuch of the medicine drugs utilized successful the US. Other geopolitical challenges included the emergence of China successful the cause improvement scene, creating a competitory closed marketplace successful the country, starring to sluggish revenues for galore Western healthcare companies.

Then determination was the utilisation of drugs themselves. Prescriptions for GLP-1RAs person soared implicit caller years, creating important gross streams for pharma heavyweights specified arsenic Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Both companies person invested billions of dollars successful manufacturing networks to support up with the request of their products. These investments are ongoing amid the looming introduction of oral value nonaccomplishment drugs; Novo has already won approval, portion Lilly inactive waits for review.

Even “Acts of God” uncover limitations successful proviso concatenation agility. A lawsuit successful constituent was the terrible shortage of IV fluids successful the US aft harm to Baxter’s North Carolina-based installation during Hurricane Helene successful September 2024.

With marketplace dynamics successful changeless flux, Pharmaceutical Technology spoke with Stefan Verheyden, CEO of Sanner, a German-based CDMO for pharmaceutical and aesculapian instrumentality packaging, to sermon however the healthcare manufacture is built to withstand disruption.

The interrogation was conducted up of Pharmapack Europe, a pharma packaging league held from 21 to 22 January successful Paris.

This interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity.

Stefan Verheyden (SV): Apart from geopolitical challenges, there's tons of mega-trends successful our manufacture that play an important role. There are emerging markets with expanding wellness attraction entree and the value of the biotech attraction market. The GLP-1RA marketplace meantime is simply a crippled changer for the packaging industry. Apart from these, pharma outsourcing is playing an expanding relation and determination is ever a absorption connected sustainability. There's inactive a process effect from the pandemic concern we were successful a mates of years ago, and ongoing tariffs, which are creating proviso concatenation challenges. That leads america to a concern wherever pharma suppliers and pharma companies request to support adjusting and find ways to flooded those challenges. Challenges are caller each the time, conscionable look astatine what happened with the US and Venezuela recently. I don't deliberation that volition person a monolithic interaction connected the pharma industry, but it’s an illustration arsenic to however rapidly things tin travel into play.