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 Editor, Nicholas Saraceno, Niklas Adamsson, COO, Envirotainer, comments on implementing data-derived technology to assist supply chains. 

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Envirotainer COO speaks on implementing data-derived technology to help supply chains. 

LogiPharma Europe 2023: Niklas Adamsson Discusses Implementing Data-Derived Technology to Assist Supply Chains

Moderator Kelsey Carvell, partner at Deloitte; Didier Jourdan, associate VP, global supply chain, Sanofi; Javier Martin, SVP, global strategy and development operations, Grünenthal; and Jens Schader, CVP, global supply chain management, Boehringer Ingelheim, partook in LogiPharma Europe’s keynote panel this morning in Lyon, France, titled “Digitalizing Patient Centricity: How Can You Leverage Innovative Tech to Ensure High Service Levels in the Face of Increasingly Complex Supply Chains?”

Carvell initiated the discussion by sharing with attendees a question that patient centricity should answer: How do we achieve optimal outcomes for the most patients, with the lowest environmental impact? In other words, it should address:

The panel then began to address various questions, including:

. Where would you place your company on the spectrum of involvement with personalized medicine, and what are the factors your company is evaluating as it develops a patient-centric strategy around these products?

. How are you managing to drive access and patient-centric operations in lower-volume and/or harder-to-reach regions?

. How is the next generation of customized medicines—such as cell and gene therapy (CGT)—driving patient-centric operations across the industry?

. How are you building resilience across your supply chain and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) to guarantee availability of medicines, given demand fluctuations in key markets?

. Can you provide an example of how your company is aligning patient-centric strategy with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals?

Below are highlights from a selection of the aforementioned questions:

Jourdan noted that Sanofi has a long heritage and the company’s focus and activities in the personalized medicine field are accelerating. Boehringer Ingelheim, said Schader, is more primary care-focused, but wants to explore personalized medicine as part of its pipeline.

He noted that it’s important to remember that one size does not fit all when it comes approaches in personalized medicine. For patient-centric models to be effective, Schader added, they should

be powered by collaboration with patients and other stakeholders. Essentially, centralized planning and seeing the process through (end-to-end) is a must. For Grünenthal, a German-based pharma specialized in pain management, Martin said it strives to ensure that the key factors impacting patient centricity are decided early on in the clinical development process.

To Martin, supply chain analysis is critical—companies should set out to determine their weakest element and address it head-on. For instance, in Grünenthal’s case, it is currently certifying its LATAM facilities to also supply to Europe. These are the two main regions that the company supplies to.

In efforts to protect the environment, Sanofi’s global health unit aims to improve access to care in 40 of the lowest-income nations via healthcare access models that provide sustainable impact, Jourdan mentioned. In fact, upon further research, the company supports ministries of health and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their transition to universal health coverage. Further, the business has launched various sustainability goals, including eco-packaging for 100% of new products by 2025, and by 2027, vaccines that are blister free.

Boehringer Ingelheim has pledged to becoming carbon neutral in company operations by 2030—Schader also alluded to the importance of shifting to smaller and reusable devices for patient-centricity purposes.

Articles

Expert panel identifies five key areas where patient-centric strategies can benefit supply chains the most—and lead to better patient outcomes.

LogiPharma Europe 2023: Digitalizing Patient Centricity

 Editor, Nicholas Saraceno, Niklas Adamsson, COO, Envirotainer, comments on the status of data-derived technology when it comes to aiding supply chains. 

Niklas Adamsson comments on the status of data derived technology aiding supply chains. 

LogiPharma Europe 2023: Niklas Adamsson Discusses the Status of Data-Derived Technology in Aiding Supply Chains

 Editor, Nicholas Saraceno, Niklas Adamsson, COO, Envirotainer, explains using technology to navigate supply chain disruptions. 

Envirotainer COO provides insights on using technology to navigate supply chain disruptions. 

LogiPharma Europe 2023: Niklas Adamsson Discusses Using Technology to Navigate Supply Chain Disruptions

An interesting concept is the idea of a “drill-down” roundtable, where several topics are presented with respective table numbers, where attendees can choose which subject matter they would like to discuss.

In one such event today at LogiPharma Europe, there were five tables set up with the following categories:

1. How can freight and pharma collectively collaborate to reduce carbon emissions

2. Import and late-stage packaging personalization

3. Delivering digitalization in air freight

4. Reducing logistics costs while driving sustainability innovation

5. Implementation of sustainable passive shipping solutions and reverse logistics processes

Being that all of these topics were of particular interest, I decided to sit in on table No. 1 (at random), which was led by Julian Sutch, global head of pharma for Emirates. Here, there was quite a bit of healthy conversation exchanged, including the idea of Scope 3 emissions—the activities from assets that are not owned or controlled directly by an organization, but rather ones that indirectly affect the company’s value chain, and that may be difficult to measure.

A major focal point was the idea that air freight and pharma can collaborate, but as noted by a table member, Julian Wann, AstraZeneca’s global category leader of freight and logistics, consumer demand dictates decisions. He said the “Amazon effect,” in which consumers seek products essentially instantaneously, is arguably putting drug manufacturers in a conundrum: speed or efficiency in terms of shipping products with emptier pallets, or waiting several days longer for those pallets to be filled. The solution, Wann offers, is that these consumer expectations ought to change.

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which the International Civil Aviation Organization defines as “renewable or waste-derived aviation fuels that meets sustainability criteria,” is a start, experts said, but it could take several years to feel its impact. Self-driving electric trucks was another innovation cited as potentially boosting sustainability efforts as well.

Roundtable drills down on ways the two sectors can come together to reduce carbon emissions.

LogiPharma Europe 2023: Air Freight and Pharma as Key Sustainability Partners

Moderator Thorsten Roggenbuck, DHL’s Global LLP product lead; Eme Luth, Gilead’s executive director and global head of ERP and corporate functions, IT; Frédéric Zwahlen, SVP, technical operations and supply chain, Vifor Pharma; Eric Thomas, VP global supply chain, BioMérieux; and Steen Mørch, VP, supply chain and manufacturing, Novo Nordisk, participated in this morning’s keynote panel discussion in Lyon, France, titled “Driving Agility and Resilience: How Can You Derive Actionable Insights from Your End-To-End Suppliers to Maximize Adaptability and Secure Your Global Supply Chain Networks?”

Roggenbuck kicked off the chat by providing the audience with a breakdown of agile resilience countermeasures, including:

Luth remarked that the pharma industry, in her opinion, provides “the most dynamic place from a tech perspective,” and that Gilead—which relies on partnerships with contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), since it only manufacturers 30% of its products—is focusing on speed with quality.

Forming partnerships as it pertains to establishing supply chain resilience was a theme that rose to the top during this presentation. Thomas commented that trust at a personal level is important to have in these relationships, especially when it comes to building technology (the predictive end-to-end and agility elements in particular) and connections.

When the question of what makes a good partnership was raised, Mørch, who predicted there will most likely be fewer of them in the future, noted that they should meet the following criteria:

· A catalogue of services for parties to further develop

He also acknowledged the need for a change in mindset: we tend to believe that data is just available, but rather it should be treated as an asset, one that clients may need to be willing to pay for.

Another way to increase agility is the shift from a global supply chain setup to a more regionalized approach. Thomas noted that this has become quite useful in helping navigate around potential trade barriers, such as those in China, for example.

Naturally, Mørch pointed out, regionalization results in offering sustainable efforts, where planes can limit emissions when it comes to delivery of products and is in Thomas’ eyes, synergistic, as after all, “we’re helping the world become a healthier place.”

Panel discusses the importance of developing strong relationships in order to maximize partner and supplier visibility.

LogiPharma Europe 2023: Ensuring Agility and Resilience

team just returned from Informa’s Patient Assistance & Access Programs (PAP) show in Philadelphia, and as 

 by colleague Nicholas Saraceno, the event was featured as a component of the larger Access USA program. In addition to conducting videos interviews that can be found 

, our team was also in attendance for multiple breakout sessions.

“Patient Assistance for Gene Therapies,” featured Kevin O’Meara, VP of patient services solutions and Skyler Vise, senior director of client delivery and excellence, both with Eversana, a provider of commercial services to the life sciences industry. In a collaborative effort, they spoke on the “critical” need to create patient-friendly cell and gene therapy (CGT) programs, acknowledging that it will be expensive at the same time. Other points made in the discussion included:

Currently, it takes four to five years to diagnose a CGT patient. During this process, time should be used to develop patient support programs, especially given the high price tag.

Once CGT is ready, it’s important to keep a steady line of communication with the patient. Having minimal info could lead to a delay in treatment.

This type of therapy needs to be administered within 72 hours. If an appointment is cancelled, one must move quickly to coordinate a replacement. If no substitute is found, the product will go to waste.

Keep in contact throughout the process to ensure patient adherence.

Another seminar, “Understanding the Need for Patient Assistance Post-Inflation Reduction Act,” featured a panel consisting of Kevin Hagan, CEO of the PAN Foundation, George Valentine, patient and family advisory council member for the foundation, and Kelly Brantley, practice director for Avalere Health, a healthcare consulting firm, all of whom spoke on the impact of this reform.

According to Hagan, reforms will lead to a Medicare cap limit of $2,000 by 2025. In a PAN Foundation survey of 2000 individuals, three out of four believe this new cap will make it difficult for them to keep up with their medical bills. Additionally, 57% of respondents that have already hit their cap stated that they have had to cut back on food expenses.

Valentine finished the discussion with his personal experience. Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2002, the council member would hit his out-of-pocket from chemo treatments on a yearly basis. He stated that around 2016, his doctor reached out to him with news that he would be able to take one pill twice a day, significantly improving his quality of life. Despite the prospect of having a quality of life again, Valentine was challenged with another obstacle: the medication costing $16,000 a month. His doctor suggested getting in touch with PAN for support.

“If it weren’t for PAN, my quality of life would go down, and I would not be here today,” he says. “The PAN Foundation covering costs has helped me talk more about regular life, such as where I’m going to spend time with my grandson.”

Pharma Commerce offers a synopsis of some of the conference’s events. 

PAP 2023: A Summary of Unparalleled Strategies to Drive Access and Affordability 

 recently had the opportunity to attend Informa’s Patient Assistance & Access Programs (PAP) show held last month in Philadelphia, an event that was featured as a component of the larger Access USA program. When the 

team was not conducting video interviews with KOLs, we had the opportunity to attend several educational seminars.

One of which revolved around “Optimizing Patient Experience, Access, and Adherence,” featuring Adam Mathis, patient assistance programs coordinate with Eskenazi Health—a company that provides treatment and services to Marion County (Florida) and central Indiana residents—and Jonathan James, CEO of non-profit Hope Charities. They dove into what it takes to creating a system that benefits the patient, with revolves around several focal points:

: Determining medications of concern, while also working with your institution to create solutions

: Keeping the patient not only involved, but optimistic. It is important, the speakers say, help the patient remain compliant and to advocate for him or her when they are unable to advocate for themselves.

: Identifying insurance status, engage the patient in a proactive manner, and use healthcare system tools to design access options

: Remaining aware of program changes, and using past experiences to help adapt as we approach the future

Personally speaking, I was curious to attend a seminar that dove into the “nuts and bolts” of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed into law Aug. 16, 2022. Charles E. Collins, who serves as president of Healthcare Stakeholder Solutions, and Brian Connell, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society executive director of federal government affairs with the office of public policy, explained that the IRA essentially directs new federal spending toward reducing carbon emissions, lowering healthcare costs, funding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and improving taxpayer compliance.

 and elaborated on by Ed Schoonveld, “the IRA includes a redesign of Medicare Part D, allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate drug prices for Medicare Parts B and D, and penalizes inflationary price increases with Medicare rebates.” Negotiated manufacturer product prices, Collins explains, are not to be announced until 2024, which is also the same time in which 5% coinsurance for Part D catastrophic coverage will be eliminated when it comes to patient out-of-pocket (OOP). Then, come 2025, a $2000 OOP cap in Part D and other drug benefit changes are expected to be implemented.

To further specify on how this impacts the patient’s annual OOP costs, Connell provided multiple visuals, including the disparity of price for leukemia treatment: under the current law/pre-IRA, OOP is $11,559, versus the 2,000 patient cost cap under IRA.

The educational sessions only begin to scratch the service on what PAP encompassed, and we look forward to attending once again come 2024.

Pharma Commerce provides a look into a few of the conference’s highlights. 

PAP 2023: Where Patient Access and Adherence Meet Regulatory Policy

 Editor, Nicholas Saraceno, Jessica Longo, director of patient support, cardiometabolic, and PAP, comments on ways the patient access landscape is changing. 

Jessica Longo offers her insights on the changing patient access landscape. 

Jessica Longo Discusses the Changing Patient Access Landscape

 Editor, Nicholas Saraceno, Jessica Longo, director of patient support, cardiometabolic, and PAP, describes her role in supporting cardiometabolic patients. 

Novo Nordisk executive dives into supporting cardiometabolic patients within her current role. 

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