PHARMA PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPLY CHAINS

Pharma doesn’t follow other industries

[Note: This is taken from What Patients Need to Know About Pharmaceutical Supply Chains]

DISCOVERY RESEARCH ‘FINDS’ A MOLECULE

In most industries, supply chains are created as part of a new product development program. The developers work together, consulting product end-users, producers, and distributors to ensure the physical supply chain they put together can deliver what is required by consumers.

For reasons we shall go into later, pharmaceutical new product development does not follow the customary approach of other industries. Rather than beginning with a consumer and working upstream to the beginning, the process begins with a patented compound and moves forwards.

This results in supply chains ‘evolving’ with the passage of time, rather being designed and planned with the consumer in mind.

The ‘R’ of R&D (Discovery Research) discovers (or finds) molecules using advanced technologies such as molecular modelling. Once it is confirmed a patent is in place, promising compounds are h…