Our job here at PlusChem is to find and supply materials which companies use to make
up their products. The companies in our group supply a diverse range of products to the
pharmaceutical industry. Ranging from key raw materials, and process solvents, to
building blocks and active pharmaceutical intermediates, to finished actives. While we
are not the ones that finalise the products straight to the distributor, it is extremely
important to make sure we have all the ingredients that add up to make the end results.
A shortage of materials can have a chain reaction which usually ends up in a backlog,
which is never positive.
One significant side to our business is that we provide chemicals to pharmaceutical
companies, so we don’t specialise in any medication. Rather our pharma customers will
ask us to source a chemical and we will find it and deliver it, that is in simple terms. In
fact, we don’t always know what a chemical is being used for. It is key for us to have
medicinal elements stocked as there are people that rely on our clients to produce their
pharmaceuticals, who have daily doses which are a necessity to improve their quality of
life. An example of a shortage of medication which is especially topical at the minute
would be Ozempic®. The role of Ozempic is to aid those who suffer with type 2 diabetes
along with diet and exercise to improve their blood sugar levels. The reason for taking
this pharmaceutical is to reduce the major health risks that can be generated through
type 2 diabetes. This is used for the people that are in desperate need of it, but other
individuals have discovered that this treatment can be used as an advantage in their
appearance.
As there is a spike in the purchase of Ozempic and other medications like it worldwide,
this then leads to there being an outage of materials to make this product. If that wasn’t
bad enough already, there are alternatives people take when they can’t get their hands
on the real deal. This is extremely dangerous as the ‘medication’ they are taking is an
imitation of all the original components of Ozempic. The ‘National Public Radio’ did an in
depth article on the outage of this particular medication. The article wrote ‘These
medications have been so wildly successful that the drugmakers can’t keep up with
demand, says Boston University health economist Rena Conti.’ This proves how
medication can become so popular in the blink of an eye. People don’t care what they
are injecting into them as long as they see results. ‘It’s unclear how soon the shortages
will be resolved, but the drugmakers have invested in new factories and say they’re
ramping up production’, wrote ‘The Atlantic’ . The evidence above enlightens PlusChem
to understand the skill of safety stock buffer.
With shortages of Ozempic and other similar medications, pharma companies should
consider taking steps to have safety stock buffer as well as fully integrated supply
chains, so that once they have new production facilities online that they can ensure that
there is no production downtime. PlusChem and our members are able to provide the
services I speak of in this article.
One of our members, ‘NCC, National Chemical Company’ wrote an article including the
significance of a safety stock buffer. ‘A safety stock buffer is a cushion to absorb the
impact if there is a delay in the supply chain or a major disruption such as a regional
lockdown or even war.’ This ensures that we can provide the requested amount of stock
from many clients throughout different times of the year.
For pharmaceutical manufactures it is now essential to avoid production downtime by
having safety stock managed and always available. As ‘NCC’ wrote “When choosing a
sourcing partner, it is vital that they provide a dedicated team to oversee and manage
all aspects of the safety stock. This includes safety stock reports issued regularly,
highlighting each material in stock, its quantity, or any material in transit and its current
location. In addition, they should provide market information on each material supplied
as well as strategies to keep risk to a minimum. We can manage these buffers for you,
in an accredited warehouse, freeing up storage space in your site, while keeping
material close and accessible as it is required.” When a business doesn’t undertake this
process, it results in consequences like the example above involving medicinal
imitations along with crucial backlog delays. Our members here at PlusChem know
exactly how to handle the process of safety stock buffer, if we are your sourcing partner
we can guarantee this.
