LogiPharma USA 2023: Impactful Roundtable Discussions

Following a variety of presentations and panels, the LogiPharma USA team hosted interactive roundtable discussions featuring a plethora of topics/tables including:

• Table #1: “Value Beyond Compliance: Data Driven Decision Making” (first topic); “What Do We Know Now About the Interoperable Supply Chain” (second topic)—featuring Steve Tallant, director of market development, Systech
• Table #2: “Cold Chain Logistics: Smarter Ways to Reduce Cost While Improving Sustainability”—featuring Darren Sherry, global head of healthcare, Bollore Logistics
• Table #3: “Cold Chain Storage Solutions with Temperature Monitoring and Validation”—featuring Doug Overman, territory sales representative, A&M Cold Storage
• Table #4: “What is Supply Chain Visibility: What Does It Mean to You, Why Has It Been So Hard in the Past, and How Can Companies Realize Value from Data and Its Exchange Between Partners?”—featuring John Jacey, senior director, Digital Supply Chain, TraceLink

I decided to stick with Table #1. It revolved heavily around how the industry can use data to mitigate supply chain decisions, along with the proper ways to handle exceptions, especially pertaining to Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) compliance.

In digging into this further, I came across an article that Tallant had penned exactly on this topic in which he noted that “because there will be exceptions to all data matching, dealing with them efficiently will be critical to keep the pharmaceutical supply chain moving. There is a myriad of reasons why the physical product received will not match the digital record of what was sent. There are scenarios of product received, but no data for the product is present. Scenarios of data received, but no corresponding product has arrived will occur. Dealing with damaged product and possible suspect product will be part of the exception handling equation as well.”

In essence, Tallant added at the roundtable that it is all about being receive “clean data.” The handling of temperature excursions have also been a concern.

The question was also raised as to where artificial intelligence (AI) fits in pharma. A point was made that the supply chain certainly wants to maximize AI, while also keeping it constrained at the same time; a fear is that manufacturers could utilize ChatGPT to brainstorm new concepts.