The COVID-19 pandemic showed many problems in global healthcare supply chains, including those in the United States. Demand for medicines and vaccines suddenly increased. Shortages happened. Shipping and production faced delays. This revealed that supply systems can be weak. Jayasree K. Iyer, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation, says supply chains need to be stronger to handle such problems and keep essential products flowing.
One key lesson is the risk of depending too much on a few suppliers. Many U.S. healthcare providers get certain medicines from just a small number of producers. If one supplier has trouble, shortages can occur.
Because of this, changing from a “just in time” inventory system to a “just in case” method is suggested. Instead of ordering only what is needed at the moment to save storage costs, healthcare groups and drug companies should keep extra stocks and have many suppliers. This helps prevent serious gaps in medicine availability.
Building more local manufacturing in the U.S. is important for this change. Local makers can lower reliance on foreign sources, shorten supply chains, and react faster to local healthcare demands. But growing local production means working together, especially with multinational companies that bring skills, technology, and money.
Multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs) have strong technology, research and development (R&D) experience, and good quality controls. These can help local manufacturers improve when combined well. Local makers know the domestic supply chains, rules, and patient needs better.
Partnerships between MNCs and local manufacturers can include:
The partnership between Viet Nam and European pharmaceutical firms offers useful lessons for the U.S. Although different in size and market, Viet Nam’s example shows how combining multinational expertise with local production can improve medicine access. This includes making more generics, raising quality so exports are possible, and supporting social responsibility work.
For U.S. healthcare leaders, such partnerships can improve supply stability, lower risks of shortages, and possibly reduce costs by encouraging local competition.
Improving medicine availability is not just about manufacturing. It needs teamwork among many healthcare players, like government, providers, distributors, patients, payers, and tech experts.
Mohamud Bardad says that involving stakeholders helps health services by gathering funding, supplies, and staff while making programs last. In the U.S., this means partnerships including:
Such teamwork stops repeated efforts and uses resources well. Public-private partnerships in the U.S. offer new funding models and technical help for long-term medicine supply. In emergencies like pandemics or disasters, working together helps quick responses by sharing information and resources fast.
Practice administrators and IT managers who understand these partnerships can better plan supply needs within their organizations.
Technology also helps improve medicine availability by making workflows and supply management better. AI tools are now common in healthcare. They help predict demand, manage buying, and improve communication.
One hard part is guessing future medicine needs correctly. Sudden sickness outbreaks, seasonal illnesses, and new health trends cause shortages. AI uses past data, health trends, and even news or social media to predict needs better than old ways.
This helps practice administrators plan inventory better. They can keep extra stock just in case without buying too much. This lowers waste and storage costs.
AI-based phone systems and answering services, like those by Simbo AI, improve talking with patients, suppliers, and staff. They quickly answer questions about medicine availability, prescription refills, or appointments. This reduces work for office staff.
Also, AI communication platforms make order processing and status updates between manufacturers, distributors, and providers smoother. This cuts down mistakes and delays from doing tasks by hand.
IT managers connect AI systems with electronic health records (EHR) and pharmacy software. Automating routine tasks like inventory checks, orders, and compliance means clinics and hospitals spend more time caring for patients instead of paperwork.
AI also finds patterns that show risks like supplier problems or strange order changes. This allows quick action to keep medicine supplies steady.
Combining AI with manufacturing partnerships creates a flexible system where supply better meets demand. This supports health across the U.S.
Expanding local drug making has challenges. Rules, payment policies, and attitudes can make it hard to join local production with U.S. supply chains.
Agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set strict rules for drug safety, quality, and effectiveness. These rules are needed but can slow new products and production increases. Partnerships between MNCs and local makers help manage these rules by sharing skills and resources.
Also, hospitals and providers should use buying rules that support many suppliers, not just big foreign or multinational companies. Letting local manufacturers join bids and focusing on supply resilience lowers the risk of depending on one source.
Healthcare leaders should review contracts and agreements to promote local production when possible. This fits with broader health security efforts worldwide.
The cost of medicine is a concern for providers and patients in the U.S. Partnerships that grow local production, especially of generic drugs, can help make medicines cheaper.
European companies working in Vietnam supported local generics to meet higher production standards. Technology sharing, joint R&D, and quality assurance helped raise trust in these products.
Likewise, in the U.S., teaming up between multinationals and local makers can improve drug quality. This is important for doctors and insurance companies to keep using the medicines.
These partnerships also allow companies to work on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts. These include care for the environment, ethical business, and community work. A national CSR plan involving both multinational and local companies builds public trust in medicines made locally.
For healthcare administrators, owners, and IT managers in the U.S., having essential medicines locally depends on many factors. These include strong supply chains, partnerships, and use of technology. Working together between multinational pharmaceutical firms and local manufacturers offers ways to increase production, improve medicine quality, lower risks, and reduce costs.
Involving many healthcare groups helps provide money, skills, and resources well. Using AI and workflow automation improves forecasting, communication, and inventory control. These are key to avoiding interruptions.
Handling rules, changing buying policies, and supporting social responsibility go along with production partnerships. Together, these steps build a stronger medicine supply system for U.S. healthcare.
Practice administrators and IT staff who learn how these parts work can better keep essential medicines available. This helps improve patient care and health results.
The pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities such as shortages, stockouts, sudden demand spikes, and disruptions to shipping. An over-reliance on a small number of suppliers, often concentrated in one region, was identified as a significant risk.
A transition from a ‘just in time’ to a ‘just in case’ model is crucial to ensure continuous delivery of critical medicines and vaccines, especially in response to potential disruptions.
1. Prioritize global health security in decision-making. 2. Widen and strengthen the supplier base. 3. Identify and fix the weakest links in access to medicine.
Changes in procurement policies should focus on ensuring continuity of supply by diversifying the supplier base and considering a wider range of suppliers in tender processes.
Technology can enhance smart forecasting, demand planning, and facilitate better communication between suppliers and procurers, improving the resilience of supply chains.
A diverse supplier base reduces dependency on single sources, mitigating risks of shortages. This expands access to essential medicines and ensures greater supply chain robustness.
Collaboration between multinational corporations and local manufacturers, along with technology transfers and capacity building, can enhance local production and availability of essential medicines.
The industry faced interconnections issues, sudden disruptions, and specific regional vulnerabilities that affected access to medicines, vaccines, and healthcare products.
The goal is to stimulate good practices and address vulnerabilities in the global supply of essential medicines and vaccines, by bringing various essential healthcare stakeholders together.
The Foundation plans to engage with companies, governments, and procurers to adopt best practices, and will expand its focus to key sectors like generic medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics.
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