3PLs and New Voices

2025 is upon us, officially marking a quarter of a century since Y2K and the midpoint of the decade. There is no doubt that time does quickly fly by, and with that, the February issue of Pharmaceutical Commerce has arrived just as swiftly.

The first edition of the year is powered by a look at pharmaceutical third-party logistics providers (3PLs)—those organizations responsible for handling the logistics for a range of products that are unable to be accomplished by a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. This year, Editor Nicholas Saraceno once again provides a deep dive into the fluid role of 3PLs, the lessons they learned post-COVID-19, the key trends impacting industry, and more via a roundtable-type discussion with leaders in the sector.

Also examined this month is an issue impacting communities throughout the US—retail pharmacy closures. In fact, a December 2024 study from researchers at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and USC found that about one in three retail pharmacies in the country have closed their doors since 2010. As a result, pharmacy deserts—areas where city residents live more than a mile away from the nearest pharmacy—are increasing in frequency. In her piece, Jenni Zilka of Good Neighbor Pharmacy and Cencora elaborates on the troubling trend, sharing that pharmacy deserts are located in areas that are up to 40% more likely to have fewer primary care providers and higher social vulnerabilities, such as poverty and lack of access to transportation.

Switching gears to some of our column highlights: in part two of his new “Popping the Gross-to-Net Bubble" series, Bill Roth of IntegriChain describes the steps that pharma manufacturers can take to address these revenue gaps. One is to revisit history to determine what approaches have been successful, including, for example, cross-functional collaboration.

And I would be remiss not to announce a sincere welcome to two new KOL voices to the regular Pharma Commerce commentary slate in 2025. Sean O’Hearen of 1st Line Partners will present unique insights on brand protection and product integrity challenges in pharma, while Chris Dowd of ConnectiveRx will dig into the always changing and deeply layered issues prevalent in patient support. Both columns debut this month here and here.

Thanks for reading.

— Mike Hennessy Jr., President and CEO, MJH Life Sciences