As more pharma manufacturers outsource elements of their process, Steve Cottrell, president at Maetrics, looks at the importance of supply chain visibility and how companies can regain full control.
Regaining control
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing elements of the manufacturing process in order to boost capacity, improve speed-to-market and to capitalise on the availability of new suppliers in Asia. A recent survey found that 44% of pharmaceutical companies expected to outsource more business in 2017 than the previous year, and only 11% expected more business to be brought in-house.1A potential drawback of this surge in outsourcing activity is the difficulty manufacturers then face to maintain sufficient visibility and control of the supply chain once they have relinquished ownership of individual elements of their operation.