The pharmaceutical industry has witnessed the rise of exports paving the way for pharma logistic company to grow their markets on the world map. Let us find why the pharma logistics companies have risen to new heights, along with the opportunities and the challenges they face.

The pharmaceutical industry has grown two-folds in the past ten years globally. Expected to reach $1.2 trillion by the year 2022, the global pharma industry is set to reach a landmark.
The United States of America or U.S. is the hub of global pharma industry with a sale record of $333 billion in the year 2015. With constant support for research and development in the pharmaceuticals sector and minimal market barriers, U.S pharmaceutical industry is going to flourish in the days to come. However, U.S pharma companies find their markets in the middle-east and South-Asian countries like Israel, India, etc. This is where the hidden aspect of the healthcare and pharmaceutical systems, that are, the pharma logistics companies come into the picture.

With the enormous amount of pharmaceutical sales across the globe, shipping them to the destined location is the work of pharma logistic companies. Pharma logistics companies have two supply chains: cold-chain supply and non-cold chain supply. While the former deals with supplying of non-temperature controlled products, the latter takes care of the temperature-controlled products, known as bio pharma. It is estimated that non-cold chain pharma logistics are rising with 4-5% growth rate, while the cold-chain logistics have recorded a growth rate of about 8-9% (Year-on-Year basis) for past few years. As per the reports, the pharma cold-chain logistics will have a value of $16.6 billion while the non-chain logistics will have a worth of $76.5 billion. However, with more temperature-sensitive medicines being developed, the transportation of refrigerated pharmaceuticals is set to shoot up extensively.

The Challenges faced:
Lack of coordination:- The lack of coordination has aggravated the problem of counterfeit pharmaceuticals particularly in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The activities for the logistics company need to be in perfect coordination so as to ensure that the customers get their medicines on a timely basis. Traceability and accurate details at every point in the supply chain can lead to a systematic coordinated supply of the medicines.

The Visibility Factor:- In order to have coordination, there needs to be a system in place wherein all the activities between the suppliers, vendors, shippers are visible. However, the pharmaceutical companies and the logistics do not rely on each other’s activities whatsoever.

Management of the Inventory:- Inventory management needs to be emphasized upon with the pharmaceutical industry rising at a great pace. However, many logistics do not have warehouses, and this has led to serious problems.

The other challenges can be listed as:
 Managing the order
 Avoiding the problem of shortage
 Dependency on human resource
 Lack of demand information
 Handling the expiration aspect of the products/ medicines
 The pharma logistics companies are surely going to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years; however, the challenges need to be addressed for enhancing the overall business.

Email ID: [email protected] or URL: http://www.crystalgroup.in/