An Exploratory Assessment of Risk and Resilience in Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

Abstract

With medicines shortages becoming an increasingly prevalent issue, it is necessary to carry out an assessment of the resilience of pharmaceutical supply chains, to determine where vulnerabilities exist which may be contributing to the shortages problem. This chapter describes an initial exploratory assessment of supply chain resilience in the downstream section of pharmaceutical supply chains. Using a previously validated approach (the Supply Chain Risk Assessment Method—SCRAMTM), survey data was collected from a number of supply chain managers dedicated to pharmaceutical sector. The findings suggest a number of areas in which supply chain capabilities require improvement in order to develop more resilience supply chains, particularly flexibility in sourcing; flexibility in order fulfilment; visibility and collaboration.