05 April 2023 | News
Supply chain and continuous manufacturing are the big risk & resilience issues for US CDMOs
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Ahead of a CPHI North America panel discussion – Redesigning the Supply Chain – The Road to Increased Resilience – Bikash Chatterjee, CEO of Pharmatech Associates, forewarns that contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) supply chains are potentially the biggest single risk to product resilience, yet remain an area often overlooked by drug sponsors in partnering criteria.
With many of the largest CDMOs now running at capacity, drug sponsors will need to focus on mitigating risk and building resiliency when using smaller or mid-sized CDMOs. Ahead of the conference, Chatterjee suggests that with demand for services increasing at the same rate as US regulatory burdens, both CDMOs and sponsors need to be looking at their supply chain today to avoid the risks of tomorrow.
The 2023 edition of CPHI North America will bring thousands of pharma professionals from 80+ countries to the Pennsylvania Convention Centre (April 25-27th) to meet, connect and attend high-level conference sessions, where leading CDMOs will seek to address capacity challenges and supply chain contingencies.
Two technologies that bode well for increased supply chain resilience are continuous manufacturing and multi-tenant architectures for cross-party data sharing. Chatterjee suggests that equipment for continuous has advanced considerably and is now cost-effective and easier to operate in a PAT environment.
Chatterjee stated that 2023 is potentially the year we see this risk manifest in some real-world supply chain problem within the US. Yet much of this can be avoided if smaller and mid-tier firms invest not only in staff with approval experience, but a number of newer technologies that can dramatically improve supply chain robustness.
CPHI North America will run as a hybrid event, with its digital platform opening ahead of the in-person event and continuing for two months post show. The online platform offers opportunities to partner and network remotely, catch up on content sessions and browse products and solutions from March 16th through May 12th 2023.