The pharmaceutical supply chain : a diagnosis of the state-of-the-art

This study explores the current supply chain trends in the pharmaceutical industry. The main objective of the study is to characterize the pharmaceutical industry and identify excellent supply chain practices. Indeed, the pharmaceutical industry is not renowned for its supply chain management capabilities, unlike many other highly publicized industries that have profitably exploited their supply chains. It is, thus, an interesting topic for research. A closer look, however, reveals that our initial assessment of the industry is colored by the popular financial criteria prevalent among analysts and the investing public. This research will suggest that the pharmaceutical industry does care about its supply chain, although, a reevaluation of the supply chain strategy is necessary for addressing problems effectively. In fact, we will argue that an excellent supply chain is paramount to the pharmaceutical industry's success. We subscribe to the view that a supply chain should be considered excellent if it is able to effectively support a business strategy. The business objectives of the pharmaceutical industry include the need to ensure that the drugs are protected from adulteration and counterfeiting, removed and destroyed in a safe and environmentally friendly manner, and made available to patients at all time. Clearly, these are not commonly used metrics to assess the performance of a company or a supply chain.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Singh, Mahender Pal, 1965-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Charles H. Fine.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33354

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33354