Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Fully 91% of outsourcing-intensive pharmaceutical participants in the study report having had a “significant incident” (i.e., causing a loss of $10,000 or more) due to quality problems or delays with contract partners. Only 59% of their more vertically integrated peers, which have mostly in-house discovery, clinical trial and manufacturing processes, reported having incidents.

...Pharmaceutical safety is both a philosophy and a core value that needs to be built into the process and inspected and monitored through stringent controls. Standards, policies, procedures and processes to ensure the safety and security of the supply chain should be agreed to by all participants (no matter how small their role) and should be reinforced by clearly defined service level agreements and reporting mechanisms. In this way, the life sciences industry, which is dedicated to developing products that help to save and enrich human life, can better meet its mission. 

-- Carla Reed