A Supply Chain Overhaul

The “Women Leaders in Supply Chain” panel discusses gender-driven obstacles faced in the life sciences sector.

From Oct. 4-6, the Pharma Commerce team returned to Boston for LogiPharma USA, this time as the show’s media recording partner. The argument could be made that this event is the largest conference of the year that we cover, alongside its European counterpart.

Organized by Worldwide Business Research, the goal of the conference is to unite supply chain professionals in the life sciences industry under one roof. It successfully achieved that—in fact, LogiPharma invests over eight months of research into choosing the right topics that will truly hit home for attendees.

Speaking of topics, we attended and covered a variety of sessions, including:

• “Navigating the E2E Global Pharma Supply Chain Using Digital Transformation”
• “DSCSA—Final Checks to Have Before Deadlines”
• “Women Leaders in Supply Chain”
• “Identifying Ways to Make International Cold Chain Shipping Efficient and Sustainable”
• Roundtable discussions surrounding data-driven decision-making and cold chain logistics

Without restating too much of what I shared in October’s “Conference Connect” regarding LogiPharma Europe, in Boston, I leaned significantly into both the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and women leaders items. In regard to the former, although DSCSA full enforcement is delayed until Nov. 27, 2024, that did not change the fact that this year’s Nov. 27 deadline was still active. The panel spoke on best practices for manufacturers to create and maintain serialized transactions information; issues around transaction statements; and strategies in securely exchanging DSCSA traceability data with wholesale distributors, health systems, and retail dispensers (such as via EPCIS).

In another panel, experts aimed to provide an honest conversation surrounding the challenges faced by women in the life sciences space. The discussion started off with a provoking statistic per Gartner: in 2022, 39% of the total supply chain workforce consisted of women. However, this represented a 2% decrease from 2021, suggested that raising these numbers will require a continuous effort from the supply chain community.

We shouldn't forget mentioning our video coverage as well, featuring the likes of Tracy Nasarenko, senior director of community engagement for pharmaceuticals for GS1 US, and Jenifer Smith, senior logistics specialist with Direct Relief. Among the various focus points, Nasarenko dove into the steps that the pharma supply chain should take in order to adapt to the new DSCSA laws, while Smith elaborated on what women and men can do to help foster growth and development. Both women were part of the panels mentioned above.

As always, you can catch all of our recent and past “Conference Connect” coverage at pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/latest-conference.