1. Introduction
The most important thing to remember about a career well spent is, of course, everything you’ve created: a product, a process, a plant, an organization, and what you’ve reaped in sales and saved in costs. But it’s above all the human experience, the encounters and the learning of new cultures that count, and Expering in particular enables us to continue creating this link between numerous European chemical and biopharmaceutical, medtech and cosmetics companies with our network of experts of 300 people. Expering’s focus is not on the seniority of its experts, but on their technical and managerial skills, acquired through experience. In this publication, I look at some of the new challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry, and the contribution of interim management to these challenges. I will focus solely on the following 3 points.
2. Which portfolio for which patients?
The covid-19 crisis showed that we lacked a universal, low-cost treatment to treat the whole planet.
This raises the question of how to rebalance our product portfolio, from personalized medicine, gene and cell therapy to treat rare diseases, to vaccines designed to target an entire population.
This is not a new idea, as generic drugs have in themselves been a way of lightening the burden on healthcare systems in rich countries and providing access to medicines in emerging countries.
So what are our priorities in terms of portfolio? This may give rise to consulting assignments.
3. Reconfiguring the supply chain
Over and above the health aspects, the current crisis has highlighted the dependence of certain sectors, such as the pharmaceutical and automotive industries, on supplies from Asia, and China in particular. Supply-chains were designed on the assumption that flows would circulate freely, but this is no longer the case.
Reference: ” Preparing your supply-chain for the post-coronavirus era ” Harvard business review – July 2020
Several questions arise:
- What level of demand, what product mix? How to simplify? Pharma companies are concerned with managing this complexity and reducing the breakage rates often associated with it.
- Which supply chain: local or offshore, or somewhere in between? Relocate, yes, but a “clean” chemical industry. Nice engineering projects ahead.
We have seen the impact of global sourcing in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, which has imported 80% of the active ingredients for its drug supply from China and India. In the post-Covid future, it is fully expected that European governments will ensure that they can draw these supplies from their own regions. Thus, we may soon see a targeted transition to regional sourcing.
This shift was initiated several years ago in response to rising Chinese labor costs. Once the main draw for companies to Asia, the labor cost differential has narrowed in recent years. What continues to attract the attention of foreigners, however, is the entire supply chain network of suppliers and sub-suppliers located in these Chinese hubs.
Reference: “A post covid-19 outlook: the future of the supply chain” IMD – May 2020
– What S&OP process for matching demand and production? Working with a semanal mesh? – Supply recovery post BCP (*). Putting theoretical risk analysis plans into practice.
*PCA : Plan de continuité d’activité
4. Digital
Amazon, Paypal, Netflix and Zoom are the big winners of containment. The Covid-19 tracking project also illustrates the extent to which digital technology is entering our lives with a vengeance.
New digital practices will gain momentum in the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry: telemedicine, tumor diagnosis, artificial intelligence on the supply chain, blockchain on clinical trials, factory 4.0 to improve industrial performance…
In all cases, there is a real need for expertise in project mode, whether through consulting or interim management. In future transformation projects, the interim manager will bring experience, wisdom and a certain neutrality to the organization.
Interim management will also become a consequence of the lengthening of professional careers to 65 and over. Expering raises the question of how to create these academies of knowledge, within the companies themselves, and how to retain the skills of people in their fifties, who often leave medium-sized and large companies too young.
C.SIDAWY