Pharma Companies Cut Supply Chain Costs With IoT

A recent in-depth Wall Street Journal article shed light on one of the most significant challenges in the modern pharmaceutical industry: rising costs associated with supply chain management. While in the past, many drugmakers cited the high costs of research as the main expense driving rising drug prices, this new article highlights how "middlemen" throughout the supply chain are actually behind many price increases.

And this is no surprise. As the global pharmaceutical supply chain grows more complex, it becomes more and more expensive to manage each leg of a drug shipment's journey, ensuring not only on-time delivery of these critical products, but also compliance in terms of in-transit temperature, humidity, and shock levels. If pharmaceutical products are exposed to potentially harmful environments, that can render entire shipments unsaleable, potentially costing the drugmakers millions of dollars.

That's why many pharmaceutical companies and other manufacturers of high-value, highly sensitive goods are turning to real-time location and condition tracking. With new IoT-powered tools, pharma companies can get the upper hand on their middlemen, using real-time data to resolve issues and hold their carriers accountable.

For example, in the past, a shipment could arrive late or damaged due to temperature excursions, and the manufacturer would often have little recourse but to swallow the associated costs. But with real-time visibility into their in-transit goods, manufacturers can identify potential issues as soon as they occur, giving them the heads up they need to solve the problem -- be it a faulty air conditioner or an unreliable carrier -- before the damage is done. Furthermore, access to data makes it possible to determine exactly when and where these issues are occurring, enabling the supply chain management team to identify and eliminate the root cause of the issue.

To learn more about how Tive is helping reduce the costs associated with managing the global pharmaceutical supply chain, check out this case study with a top European drugmaker, or request a trial with Tive today.