.png)
Postscripts Rx
Conversations Beyond the Prescription. Where pharma, HCPs, life science and digital health solutions meets patients—after the script is written. Conversations on digital health, engagement, and real-world impacts that are re-writing the future of patient engagement.
Postscripts Rx
Beyond the Prescription: Why Supply Chain Security Matters to Everyone
What happens when the medications patients need simply aren't available? The answer is playing out right now across healthcare systems worldwide as pharmaceutical supply chains face unprecedented pressures.
The pharmaceutical industry stands at a crossroads as discussions around a potential 200% tariff on imported drug products force executives to confront uncomfortable truths about supply chain vulnerability. With China providing approximately 40% of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in American medications and 72% of manufacturing facilities located overseas, the stakes couldn't be higher. This isn't merely a procurement challenge—it's a strategic threat that touches every aspect of patient care.
The 2023 chemotherapy shortage offers a sobering glimpse into what happens when supply chains fail. Hundreds of hospitals faced critical shortages of common cancer treatments, forcing doctors to make impossible choices about rationing life-saving medications. This wasn't an isolated incident—over 300 drugs were in active shortage during that period, the highest number in nearly a decade. For patients awaiting treatment, supply chain disruptions quickly became life-threatening realities.
Forward-thinking pharmaceutical companies are responding by building redundancy into their operations, investing in predictive analytics to anticipate disruptions, equipping patient support teams with digital communication tools, and conducting rigorous scenario planning. The percentage of pharma leaders who view supply chain risk as a top strategic threat has jumped from 12% to 42% in just four years—a testament to the growing recognition that supply chain security directly impacts patient outcomes.
Subscribe to Postscripts for more insights at the intersection of pharmaceutical innovation, technology, and patient care. How is your organization preparing for the next supply chain disruption?
PostScripts Rx is not intended to constitute medical advice, nor is it intended to influence prescribing decisions or any other medical or clinical decision-making. All medical and clinical judgment and decision-making, prescribing decisions, and all related considerations remain exclusively the responsibility of providers and patients.
Hello and welcome to Postscripts, the podcast exploring what happens after that first prescription. We cover the latest innovations in patient access support, digital tools, hcp engagement, pharma marketing, all of which we all hope drive better outcomes for patients. This podcast is for informational purposes only, does not constitute any medical advice, nor should it be used for any clinical decision-making. Patients should always consult their healthcare professionals. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Brian Carr from the Medisave team, although any opinions expressed here are expressly my own and not those of Medisave or its partners. What we're talking about today is really what affects everybody. It's why pharma and pharma execs really are rethinking right now the supply chain risk before the next disruption. We're delving into a little discussion here that touches every corner of the pharma ecosystem, from procurement teams to patient access professionals and from C-suite to IT. Security leads supply chain stability and why really it is now at the heart of some of the patient outcomes.
Speaker 1:We recently saw headlines around a proposed 200% US tariff on certain drug products. It really has caught the attention of the industry. It's not about geopolitics or trade negotiation. It is a wake-up call about supply chain risk, strategic dependence, resilience in patient care delivery. We're going to explore what these developments mean for the future of pharma ops and patient impact, and examine a recent heartbreaking example that the chemotherapy chemotherapy drug shortage that happened a couple years ago and by the end we're going to really hope to uncover how every stakeholder in the pharma must really start to think about supply chain and be aware of it first, and then how digital tools can really play a crucial role managing downstream consequences when disruptions do occur.
Speaker 1:So let's talk tariffs and trade in pharma. There has been a wake-up call. One article from the Associated Press said you saw that their US consideration is considering the implementation of up to 200% tariffs on pharmaceutical products imported right. So it's positioned as a move to promote domestic production, and it has. We've seen some plants, such as Amgen, decide that they're investing, most recently $550 million in a plant research development facility in California. So it's positioned as a move to promote domestic production. But it also carries with it deep industry implications and here's what you need to pause and consider.
Speaker 1:China is a critical supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients, apis. It accounts for an estimated 40% of the APIs used in the US. So, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, 72% of the API manufacturing facilities for US marketed drugs are located overseas and there is a large concentration in China and India. So a 200% tariff could lead to drug price increases, obviously, but also production delays, even market exits, especially among generic drug makers already struggling with those tight margins. So, even if these tariffs are selectively applied, the broader message to pharma stakeholders is clear Our global supply networks are vulnerable to disruption from policy. Three years ago, it was COVID affecting supply chain. Now it can be policy decisions affecting supply chain and politics and pressure. So we need answers, not just contingencies, that can really scale across an enterprise.
Speaker 1:So let's consider a recent example. That's not COVID. We had a chemotherapy crisis. It was a disruption that turned deadly. It was a recent crisis, about two years ago. It was 2023. It really exposed just how dangerous these supply chain vulnerabilities can become.
Speaker 1:Hundreds of hospitals in the US were facing shortages of common chemo drugs that were foundational for the treatment for a wide range of cancers. You may remember this. Why was there a shortage? Well, the precursor chemicals and those APIs that I mentioned before are sourced from overseas, where any manufacturing disruptions occurred due to the quality violations. There were regulatory shutdowns and, with few domestic alternatives and really limited redundancy in production, the supply chain basically broke and patients started paying the price. Doctors were forced to ration and delay some chemotherapy. For about thousands of patients, it was an isolated incident. In Q1 2023, the American Society of Health System Pharmacists said about 300 drugs were an active shortage at the time and it was the highest number in nearly a decade.
Speaker 1:So let's be clear these aren't just simply distribution issues. All you need is that single weak link, whether it's manufacturing, regulation, political unrest, raw material access. It can cascade across the entire pharma pipeline, accelerate their diversification of API sources and invest in more redundancy. And even if it raises short-term costs, you're seeing patient support teams. They need real-time tools to manage treatment delays, provide adherence guidance and, when medications are changed, to delay that bidirectional communication directly to the patients that are affected that may not go through their HCPs or even be aware that there are supply chain disruptions that they may face next time they go to refill their meds or get their next infusion. Brand teams they have to forecast the reputational and commercial risks right If critical therapies go offline or the supply chain is severely disrupted unexpectedly.
Speaker 1:The C-suite needs to balance globalization with security. According to Deloitte, recently, 42% of pharma leaders now view supply chain risk as a top three strategic threat. That's up from 12% in 2019. Innovation teams should consider exploring predictive supply chain analytics, AI-driven demand modeling and digital therapeutics that reduce pharmaceutical load when treatment is deferred. Consider the pharma IT security teams. They're essential to managing that visibility across third-party vendors with tools that monitor not only compliance performance but disruption signals. Right. The chain is only as strong as its weakest node, so that upstream supply risk now needs downstream visibility and accountability in every pharma function. So what do pharma execs do now? Well, right now they can take actions to prepare for any regulatory or logistical earthquakes.
Speaker 1:One is build redundancy. You know, an over-reliance on a single geographic source, even one as productive of China, can be risky. It's not feasible to offshore everything, but redundancy should be a board level concern, not just a cost center debate. Two is to tap into predictive data AI and data science that really can help flag risk earlier, based on global patterns, shipping data, political tension indicators. Right, supply chain intelligence platforms are really moving from a nice to have to a must have. Three, empower patient support teams with digital tools. When the supply system slows, delay becomes the patient's burden. That's why tools like Medisafe and others are critical, because Medisafe really does enable personalized patient engagement reminders, bi-directional communication with support team, really closing that support loop, especially during therapy transitions or any interruptions. So, for example, when a formulary change or delay occurs, tools like Medisafe can push tailored special alerts to those effective patients with instructions. We can even capture adherence metrics and data and AI to really signal patient risk back to providers and hubs on adherence rates or trends we're seeing in the actual patient population.
Speaker 1:Four you need some real good scenario planning for access and marketing. Brand marketers and access teams really should model scenarios where top therapies go offline for one, three, maybe even six months. What channels do you use to educate HCPs? What content does the patient need? How do you keep them in safe alternatives? This 200% tariff debate isn't a hypothetical policy chess match. It's really a beta test for how the market would react if ingredients from one region were suddenly scaled back or priced out.
Speaker 1:So conclusion you know a supply chain mindset is now really a strategic imperative.
Speaker 1:Supply chain is just not a topic for logistics. It's touched as prices, access, branding and ultimately those postscript outcomes that we all hope go in favor of patients. So as we consider the potential ripple effects of a high tariff trade environment and reflect on some of those real tragedies like a chemotherapy drug shortage, it really does become clear Pharma really is starting to treat supply chain transparency, resiliency and patient continuity as shared responsibilities, and digital tools like Medisafe can help mitigate some of that downstream risk when the system slows. But really it's that upstream coordination, predictive modeling, interdepartmental collaboration, forming that new standard operating system. So whether you're in brand strategy, compliance, procurement, patient innovation, your role now includes a little supply chain lens and when every link in the chain is connected, we ensure no patient can be left at risk. Thanks for joining us on Postscripts. If you found this conversation valuable, follow and subscribe for more insights at the intersection of pharma tech and patient impact. Until next time, keep looking forward. The real work begins after that script is written.
