Online platform could address pharmaceutical supply chain issues, consultancy claims

Online platform could address pharmaceutical supply chain issues, consultancy claims

Sourcing and validating an ingredient supplier can take pharmaceutical companies up to six months, according to consultancy company Rephine. The company currently offers audit reports to help pharmaceutical companies source active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), but it is also now looking to build an online platform for quicker secure sourcing of these ingredients.

Rephine business manager Alasdair Leckie told in-Pharmatechnologist: “A pharmaceutical company is required to have excellent knowledge about the different stages throughout the supply chain, and all recent regulatory texts and publications are made with this in mind.

“However, the world of chemicals is extremely vast and complex. A pharmaceutical company can spend months looking for and choosing the appropriate ingredient supplier. Rephine has estimated that the process of finding and qualifying a new supplier can take between 15-26 weeks from start to finish.”

Leckie also told in-Pharmatechnologist that part of the reason for the length of the sourcing process is that there is currently no up-to-date digital platform that allows pharmaceutical companies to easily search API providers for accurate information or gauge product quality in the earlier sourcing stages.

He added that Rephine is “looking at designing an online platform for sourcing APIs which could give potential customers an indication of the quality of the products and would help to save a number of weeks’ work when selecting a new supplier.”

Rephine has audited more than 5,000 pharmaceutical ingredients, with around 40% of its audits occurring in India and a further 20% in China. in-Pharmatechnologist asked Leckie about regulatory issues that have seen some companies returning to Europe for their ingredients, according to some industry groups. He replied that these issues have the potential to occur within any country that is undergoing an audit.

Leckie said that he has not noticed a trend in customers moving from lower-cost markets but acknowledged that these moves are a possibility due to customer concerns regarding data integrity within certain regions.