Making sense of the pharmaceutical supply chain
02nd Jul 2021
The pharmaceutical supply chain and the power of partner proximity.
Due to its global scale, multiple parties, and nuanced requirements, the pharmaceutical supply chain is highly complex. It is not uncommon for a single project to be transferred across continents several times before a product ever reaches the market, further complicating coordination and efficiency. It makes sense, therefore, that the vast majority of sponsors cite geographic proximity as a top consideration in their CDMO search. With the right outsourced partner, pharmaceutical and biotechnology organisations can benefit from the power of proximity and realise several compelling benefits on their product’s path to market.
68% of companies cite geographic proximity as a top consideration when choosing a CDMO.
The global pharmaceutical supply chain and the importance of the CDMO-sponsor relationship.
Among the most important links in the global pharmaceutical supply chain is the CDMO-sponsor relationship, which is critical to ensuring product quality and compliance, cost effectiveness, and timely delivery. Finding a highly capable partner in close proximity to your organisation can help you optimise this critical link.
Why does partner proximity matter?
By prioritising location when selecting an outsourced partner, pharmaceutical and biotechnology organisations can unlock five key advantages:
With distance inevitably comes delays. It takes time to move product and knowledge across continents. By choosing a nearby partner, sponsors can mitigate opportunities for delay that hinder time to market.
The timeline from drug discovery to market averages around 12 years.
Transparency into project progress naturally increases with close geographic proximity. A nearby CDMO affords sponsors full visibility into project progress, quality, safety, sustainability, and more.
75% of sponsors identify communication and transparency a stop attributes upon which to evaluate their outsourced partners.
Drug complexity is at an all-time high. Handling complex molecules requires rich collaboration between sponsors and their outsourced partners, and selecting a conveniently located partner offers more opportunities for ongoing collaboration to address complex scientific challenges.
Global pharmaceutical R&D costs are expected to rise $38 billion by 2026, indicating rising complexity.
While sponsors may outsource to other parts of the world due to low up-front costs, logistical costs and quality concerns can result insignificant added expenses that often outpace initial savings. A local partner can overcome these barriers by enabling you to mitigate logistics related expenses and affirm quality at every stage.
All expenses included, the average total cost of drug development is estimated to be $2.6 billion.
In a highly regulated industry, it is critical for sponsors to ensure their products and processes comply with all applicable quality and safety standards. Regulations vary around the world, so choosing a nearby partner ensures full alignment on regional regulatory standards during the API development and manufacturing process.
72% of sponsors cite regulatory compliance as a top factor when choosing a CDMO.A full-service partner for full-lifecycle support.
Whilst proximity is critical, the right partner is even more so. At Sterling, our world-class facilities are strategically located at centres of small molecule innovation in the US and UK to ensure accessibility to our customers. But that’s not all. As a PDMO, or partnership development and manufacturing organisation, we provide our customers a simple and collaborative way of working, a passionate and highly capable team, and world-class services that prioritise quality, safety, and compliance.
Service
We pride ourselves on being easy to do business with, removing layers of complexity, maximising flexibility and adaptability to your requirements, and doing what we say we will do, again and again.
Passion
We promise to treat your molecule as our own, drive progress by continually exploring new and emerging capabilities, and do the right thing for our people and planet.
Science
We combine our expertise in complex and hazardous chemistry, our world-class facilities and our full-lifecycle capabilities to place scientific excellence at the core of every solution we deliver.
