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Brent McPherson has spent over 25 years in the supply chain sector, managing clients and teams in both local and regional roles (APAC), covering many industries and sectors. Over the past 10 years, his main focus has been on the healthcare sector. From a commercial perspective, he has worked in start-up organizations concentrating on marketing and sales strategies. Having studied in several fields, such as business management, international trade, supply chain and sales, he brings a unique perspective to his role. Brent is National Business Development Manager, Australia & New Zealand, for World Courier, an AmerisourceBergen company.
COVID-19 has sparked several catchphrases, which have been used more than ever. These include pivot, new-normal, and my absolute favorite: the supply chain.
In the past five months, I’ve heard the supply chain discussed more than I have in my whole career. The sector responsible for the world’s tangible trade has been placed in the spotlight while it impacts every part of our lives.
The impact of COVID-19: Simple pleasures taken for granted
Let’s take the basic pleasure of date night with my wife. Due to lockdowns, we could no longer go out for a nice quiet meal without the kids. Desperate for something close to normality, my wife researched the websites of our favourite restaurants and informed me that one of them was now “pivoting” their high-end meals, from dining into home-deliveries. So we thought, let’s give it a try and treat ourselves with a lockdown, date night from our favourite venue.
Saturday evening: Temperature control through the supply chain
Saturday night came around; we were so excited, eagerly awaiting the driver to ring the doorbell. The dining table was set with candles, wine, and the works!
Finally, it arrived.
We opened up our delivery bag and took out our fine dining meals stored in aluminum containers. Upon opening, we realized that the meal, priced at AU$85, was not that hot. We realized we’d made the wrong choice, and that the integrity of our meal was no longer intact.
Not happy with this, we took it upon ourselves to sign up for a “make it yourself meal supply company.” They provide customers with fresh ingredients and fool-proof recipes.
The night our package of ingredients arrived, we put on the music, cracked open the wine, and started to cook. The meal was amazing, we had the satisfaction of trying something new, and… everything was fresh. Although the price of the ingredients was AU$33.00, it fed the four of us, leaving more money for wine!
The relationship between fine dining and the personalized pharmaceutical sector
This had me thinking about the supply chain model for the regenerative medicine sector. Like fine dining is the pinnacle of the restaurant industry, so is the Personalized Pharmaceutical sector to the health care industry.
Current models for the way a lot of autologous therapies are designed means that the manufacturing process has to be globally centralized. The intellectual property, machinery and raw material used to re-engineer patient stem cells are usually located with the developing partner. These supply chains require strict planning and high-level attention to ensure a just-in-time transition.
The patient could be located on a different continent. Meaning the extraction of the cells needs to align with the flight schedule of commercial airlines, drivers and customs. The fragile shipment would pass through a minimum of eight sets of hands, each way, based on a direct flight, best model.
Although this is an incredible therapy, it is heavily reliant on a stable, well-oiled supply chain with regular flight schedules, direct connections, all around the clock!
The challenge: The future of our sector
All this was fine 12 months ago; however, in the same way many restaurants have changed their approach because of the impact of COVID-19, our airline industry has been decimated, and the way we deliver these therapies needs to pivot.
The future of our amazing sector needs to look at how we can replicate these high-end therapies, regionally or even locally, to minimize the reliance on global air freights.
Key things to consider are:
- Contract manufacturing
- Investments by governments for the training of clinicians
- Upgrading facilities
- By-lateral agreements with country partners for a Regenerative Hub
- Involving supply chain experts to help with the modeling for delivery of therapy
Now these are not easy things to do, but they need to be considered at conception, before trials.
Summary
Logistics should be part of the development process, not a reaction of a need. Just like the make it yourself meal options, let’s see how we can make these phenomenal therapies available to more people, in more places, around the world.
By following the metaphorical equivalent of fool-proof, locally sourced ingredients, we can drastically reduce the cost of the therapies and the reliance on global airfreight networks.
My blog is just one of many covering the opportunities and challenges for the regenerative medicine field arising from COVID-19, as part of Signal’s fifth annual blog carnival. Please click here to read what other bloggers think about this.
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