How the Biotech Industry is Transforming from Science to Business

Apr 13, 2017

A Unique Platform for SCM Professionals: The one-of-a-kind community of supply chain professionals globally is holding a one-day summit at the Cambridge Marriott in Boston on April 26 to address innovations which will significantly advance the overall effectiveness of the supply chain of bio-pharma. Over 30 eminent SMEs from industry, academia and technology enablers will present solutions in the critical areas ranging from strategic sourcing to transportation in the development and commercialization of drugs. The town hall format of the event, having been held for ten years in California, provides sharing of best practices enables technology adoption and transfers case studies to produced game-changing results regarding efficiency, patient care and governmental compliance. http://biosupplyalliance.com/1st-bsma-conference-boston-ma-2017

Supply Chain Management is Under-Served: While most industry events in the industry are driven by suppliers, this unique event, where BSMA is collaborating with MassBio, has the extraordinary leadership and support of biotech drug companies. The singular goal is to demonstrate how the biotech industry is transforming from science to business. Over the last forty plus, since the birth of Genentech in San Francisco, the biotech industry has achieved excellence in the vertical functional silos of business, but the benefits realized remain marginal across horizontal entities, not only between suppliers and customers of a company but more between its internal links. While purchasing or logistics or operations professionals climb the vertical ladder to their top, they miss the greater opportunities of zig-zagging across related functions of a company. Supply chain remains to be stereotyped merely as sourcing and logistics while missing the holistic value of synergizing sourcing, operations, business intelligence and data analytics, information technology, strategic analysis and planning, risk management and even human resource. Why does not the chief procurement officer or EVP of operations become the COO or CEO of the company? Supply chain management is the navigational path to the C-Suite for those that desire it.

Come to the Town Hall for Career Advancement: This confluence of SCM professionals at the Conference being organized by BSMA (Bio Supply Management Alliance) and MassBio is a unique opportunity to leverage the experience and knowledge of SMEs. How would you like to learn from a panel of SCM experts addressing “Industry 360° – Advancing the Efficiency and Intelligence of the Biotech Supply Chain”?  Do you wish to lean about supplier relations development, contract manufacturing and clinical trials management, cold chain technology, Big Data and analytics and emerging markets?

We all realize the digital disruption is impacting our industries. How do you seize the potential from  “Patient-centric Supply Chain in the Disruptive Digital World of Healthcare,” a current challenge to be addressed by Barry Blake, Vice President, Program Director, SCM World.

If your current professional pursuit is to provide the highest possible quality clinical trial supplies in a fast and efficient manner, you must establish Practices and Strategies to create efficient global clinical supply logistics. How do you manage returns and the use of pooled supplies? What are your global approaches to expiry dates and temperature monitoring strategies? What are your organizational training and communication approaches? Answering some of these vital questions will be Dr. Mary Jo Lamberti, Senior Research Fellow at the Tufts Centre for the Study of Drug Development.

Imagine the formidable challenge faced by startups trying to procure the services required to support drug discovery, development and commercialization. They are often underserved because of misaligned experience, limited resources, investment constraints, and incomplete knowledge of what options are available on the market. Identifying, qualifying, and establishing outsourcing relationships contributes to enterprise strategy, innovation, and collaboration. An industry panel, led by Mary Kachinsky, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing and Operations at Forma Therapeutics will provide solutions.

How many of you have realized the difficulty of “Unleashing the trapped value in the sourcing process during drug discovery and development of CROs and CMOs?   The challenges of achieving alignment of strategic objectives, seamless integration of services, the capability to monitor the process and ensuring regulatory compliance, are enormous. Executives will address how management, systems and technology are being deployed to maximize the success of drug delivery to the market.

Innovations – The Life Line for Professionals!: “Leveraging Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) & Regulatory Information” is critical in optimizing the complexity and cost of the drug portfolio of a company. SMEs from PwC, who have done research with over 20 companies, will present their findings.

It is opportune to learn about the transformational potential of Blockchain technology in healthcare which the MIT Media Lab has been pioneering. Distributed ledger technology can allow suppliers with unaligned interests to selectively share vital information on production process and payment flows in a manner that all parties can trust and extract value at different stages of the chain. Let Michael Casey, Senior Adviser of the Blockchain Opportunities at MIT Media Lab shed light.

Many of us believe that “Optimizing and Integrating the Fulfillment Process of the Clinical Supply Chain in the Global Territories” is a necessary pursuit. The opportunities to significantly reduce cost, time and failures in Clinical Trials of drugs, while ensuring regulatory compliance, will be addressed.

Are you ready for Serialization 2017 Mandate of DSCSA? Serialization can involve manufacturing implementation of unit level bar coding, case and pallet level aggregation, system management of product movement, warehousing and distribution processes to ship product. I believe Serialization has its own ROI regarding traceability and resultant capability to better manage inventory and service.

Today, the disruptive technologies of IoT, the internet, digital, AI, machine learning and mobile are rewiring the supply chain with real-time, actionable intelligence. Machine learning algorithms and AI identify specific patterns from environmental sensor data such as light, pressure, humidity, shock and temperature to visually segment supply chain shipments into their parts.  The combination of these insights on a global scale generates highly accurate handling and excursion benchmarks for airports, shippers, lanes, and seasons.  From these benchmarks, pharmaceutical companies quickly and accurately project the optimal shipping method to minimize risk, reduce product damage, and cut transportation costs. CEOs of pioneering companies, like CargoSense and DHL, have solutions and ideas.

 

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