Strategy is critical to supply chain success

Historically, supply chains were measured by efficiency, service and cost. Today, however, they directly influence revenue growth, profitability, product launch success, patient access, regulatory compliance and enterprise resilience.

“Pharmaceutical commercialisation is becoming more complex, and supply chain strategy now has a much bigger role in determining whether a product can reach patients reliably,” Alina Chesnokova, Vice President of Global 3PL Commercialisation at Cencora, told Pharmaceutical Technology Focus.

According to data by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), global trade in the pharmaceuticals sector has grown 10‑fold over the past 30 years, now accounting for around 4% of total trade by value. As the sector has grown, it has become more intricate, and its supply chains have struggled to keep pace with demand.

Shortages have been commonplace both pre- and post-COVID-19, largely due to manufacturing and quality issues, disrupting supply and patient confidence. A 2026 report commissioned by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) found that 264 medicines were monitored under shortage protocols in the UK alone between 2025 and 2026.

“The pharmaceutical supply chain is no longer a cost centre,” Christy Christian, Life Sciences at Kinaxis, told Pharmaceutical Technology Focus. “It is becoming a growth engine, a risk management platform and increasingly, a source of competitive advantage.”

Geopolitical instability, tariffs, trade restrictions and drug shortages have exposed the fragility of globally optimised networks.

Simultaneously, pharmaceutical pipelines are evolving toward biologics, specialty medicines and personalised therapies that require unprecedented coordination across research and development (R&D), manufacturing, quality and commercialisation.

Planning and management revolve around optimising each stage of the supply chain to ensure pharmacies and patients receive sufficient medication, on time. “The direction of travel is toward supply chains that balance efficiency with resilience,” Chesnokova said.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is preparing for the new pharmaceutical legislation, designed to provide key information on vulnerabilities in the supply chains of critical medicines, and explain how these could be addressed at an EU level. “EMA is involved in ongoing work to ensure that the supply chains of critical medicines are secure,” a spokesperson for EMA told Pharmaceutical Technology Focus.

EMA’s Executive Steering Group on Shortages and Safety of Medicinal Products (MSSG) and Medicine Shortages Single Point of Contact (SPOC) Working Party play a significant role in implementing the key measures of the revised pharmaceutical legislation and the Critical Medicines Act—aimed at supporting a more proactive and coordinated approach to prevent medicine shortages.

The rise of biologics, speciality medicines and advanced therapies has fundamentally changed logistics and supply chain requirements, transforming the operating model of pharmaceutical supply chains.

As more of these enter the pipeline, decisions around temperature control, capacity, packaging, timelines, scalability and order-to-cash support are being made much earlier in launch planning. “They have made logistics much more personal,” Marco Hogenboom, Global Head of Personal Supply Chain and Lab Logistics at World Courier, told Pharmaceutical Technology Focus.

“Cold chain is no longer a downstream logistics consideration, but a factor that can influence market access, patient experience and launch success,” said Chesnokova.

For decades, the industry was built around a "one-to-many" model: manufacturers would make products at scale and distribute them broadly. Cell therapies, gene therapies, and personalised medicine are creating a "one-to-one" model where the supply chain revolves around an individual patient. “This changes everything,” said Christian.

These therapies require strict cold-chain controls, chain-of-custody and chain-of-identity tracking, shortened manufacturing and delivery windows, and highly coordinated quality oversight. “There is no room for delay or error; treatments are highly sensitive and often patient-specific,” said Hogenboom.

A supplier’s role goes beyond shipping supplies to supporting an individual treatment journey that is often time-sensitive. The process therefore involves strict temperature control, validated packaging, real-time visibility and good coordination with sites. “Precision matters because the shipment really matters to a person and their family,” said Hogenboom.

Today, the supply chain is increasingly part of the product, with every handoff, transportation event, manufacturing step and release process directly impacting patient outcomes. “For autologous therapies in particular, the supply chain is no longer supporting the product,” said Christian.

In response, pharmaceutical companies are investing in real-time visibility, digital orchestration, scenario planning and connected decision-making to help teams respond faster and with greater confidence. “The objective is no longer just moving inventory; [it] is synchronising a complex ecosystem around the needs of a single patient,” said Christian.

Cencora, a global pharmaceutical solutions organisation, is investing in European 3PL, cold-chain and cryogenic infrastructure. Its European investment reflects a market moving quickly toward therapies that are more specialised, more temperature-sensitive and harder to scale without the right infrastructure. The expansion of cold chain, 3PL and cryogenic capabilities aims to directly address that need.

Across Europe, Cencora’s cold chain capacity has grown by 40% in recent years, and its Netherlands hub now includes two cryogenic tanks and 12 ultra-low freezers. But the real value is not just extra space. “It is the ability to protect products from storage and packout through to monitoring, transport and delivery, so launches keep moving, and patients do not face avoidable delays,” said Chesnokova.

1. Biffa internal savings data, average saving (January - August 2023)
2. Nisbets internal savings data, average saving (January – September 2023)
3. Compliance365 internal data, average  savings
4. HEINEKEN UK data, Calculations based on SmartDispense® active accounts each year since 2015 with 10 lines
5. Independent test results based on subterranean and ground floor pub cellars of varying sizes
6. Independent test results based on subterranean and ground floor pub cellars of varying sizes

As complexities increase, while global and highly optimised models still have a place, manufacturers are placing greater emphasis on regional capabilities, back-up routes, specialist storage and stronger contingency plans.

Rather than deglobalisation, the pharmaceutical sector, Christian said, is “seeing the end of single-minded optimisation” that centres on minimising cost and maximising efficiency. “That approach delivered tremendous value, but the pandemic, geopolitical tensions, export controls, tariff uncertainty and drug shortages revealed the hidden cost of fragility,” Christian added.

Today, companies in the pharmaceutical supply chains are actively redesigning their networks to prioritise resilience. That includes regional manufacturing capabilities, multi-sourcing strategies and strategic inventory positioning.

Ongoing efforts to evolve pharmaceutical capacity, consistency and integration are vital. “More scalable cold chain space is needed across refrigerated, ultra-low and cryogenic conditions, but infrastructure alone is not enough,” said Chesnokova.

Expertise in packout, temperature control, quality, monitoring, and distribution is becoming increasingly important, particularly as manufacturers weigh single-use versus reusable shippers and manage more complex cryogenic requirements. Timing is paramount too, emphasising the importance of built-in strategy in supply chain planning.  “The goal is to address those decisions early, before complexity turns into launch risk,” Chesnokova added.

“The industry still faces a significant gap between visibility and action,” said Christian. Most companies now have considerable data. Yet turning this into aligned, actionable decisions remains a challenge.

Primarily, a lack of end-to-end visibility is the reason behind this, with many companies struggling to see beyond tier-one suppliers. This leaves critical vulnerabilities hidden within raw materials, speciality components and logistics networks.

Decision latency is another hurdle. “Supply chains operate in an environment where disruptions occur faster and more frequently than ever before,” said Christian. Waiting for ‘ideal’ and ‘comprehensive’ information often delays responses and may lead to negative outcomes, with knock-on effects on the supply chain.

“The future belongs to companies that can make informed decisions with 80% confidence, execute quickly, learn rapidly and adjust continuously,” said Christian.

Pharmaceutical supply chains are certainly evolving, and the biggest surprise may be just how much planning will underpin decision-making to optimise delivery. Ensuring the earlier involvement of supply chain teams in commercialisation planning will be a key change.

“In five years, logistics will not simply execute the shipment; it will help shape the launch model itself,” Chesnokova said.

Regional networks, predictive planning, continuous monitoring, order-to-cash capabilities, and flexible infrastructure are likely to become increasingly embedded in how pharmaceutical companies bring complex therapies to market.

“The 3PL role will also continue to expand, moving beyond moving products efficiently to managing commercialisation risk, cash flow, customer experience and patient access,” said Chesnokova.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to continuously monitor demand signals, manufacturing performance, supplier risks, logistics conditions and regulatory events. In addition to reporting problems, these systems can anticipate them and recommend actions before disruptions occur, helping organisations make better decisions earlier.

Five years from now, the most successful pharmaceutical companies will view the supply chain the way they view R&D today: not as a support function, but as a strategic differentiator.

Today, many companies still view clinical and commercial supply chains as separate domains. Success will depend on a tightly connected ecosystem that links development, clinical operations, manufacturing, commercialisation and patient delivery into a single orchestrated network.

“In the future, the most successful organisations won't have the best supply chain; they will have supply chains that function as an extension of the therapy itself,” Christian highlighted.