Pharmaceutical Leaders Must Restructure To Reap Supply-Chain Benefits

As the leading pharmaceutical companies turn into global health careenterprizes, success depends on smoothly-integrated supply chains, using cross-industry best practices. Indeed, the companies that already have such strategies in place are benefiting through savings and increased revenue, say recent seperate studies from Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath and Andersen Consulting.

The Integrated Supply-Chain Benchmarking Study from PRTM this year contains an explicit pharmaceutical segment, along with seven other industry sectors including computers, electronic equipment, chemicals and packaged goods. Cosponsored by 28 companies, including Baxter, Bayer and Merck, the study claims that top companies achieve a cost advantage over their competitors of up to 5% of revenue through superior supply-chain performance.

Dean Gilmore, a PRTM director, also notes: "the millions that companies save through well-focused supply chains can be captured as increased profits or re-invested in other areas of the company." With specific regard to the pharmaceutical industry, PRTM came up with three major findings in comparing the leading companies' performances with those of their median competitors.