Page 28 - ITLN JAN-FEB 2022 for Magzter

Event Report
Global Pharma
Logistics Summit 2021

ocean freight is much more reliable strategy, Sudhir Mohan Bansal, vice of the visibility tech is now applied
and we are always trying to move to the president & India head supply chain, in the first mile and there is a gap of
ocean against the air. Air carries only 8 Pfizer, said, pandemic was a wake- the same in the mid-mile and last-
percent of our volume while it causes 75 up call for the industry. The Indian mile. We are moving from descriptive
percent of our budget," he said. pharmaceutical industry was heavily to predictive. Earlier we used to get
In the second panel which dealt with dependent on China for many pharma a report of what happened. But now
the complexities of delivering biologically- products and not least the APIs. But we could predict if an event is likely
derived, temp-controlled drugs and it also doesn’t mean that the sourcing to happen. And then we are using the
therapies, speakers stressed the completely moving away from China. data to become prescriptive. Looking
investments coming into this segment, It taught us that we need to relay on into how can I influence the outcome.
increasing shipments of temperature- at least two or three diffident sources. So we are becoming more intelligent
controlled pharma shipments and the So if one fails we can rely on the other. and providing actionable insights to
business recovery strategy. The positive side is that other service our customers.”
Sreenivas Rao Nandigam, global head providers have also got this point.” The last panel addressed the
of supply chain, SUN PHARMA, said, While delivering a keynote to the third development of digitalization and
"There is no way the pharma industry panel Fabrice Panza, manager, Global the involvement of technology in the
can't deliver but it has the increased Cool Chain Solutions, Etihad Cargo, said, movement of pharma products. Sid
complexity of cold chain. This is why the "Early on we identified the challenges Chakravarthy, Founder & CEO, StaTwig,
local logistics service points close to the to move Covid-19vaccines in terms of "For the first time, with StaTwig, we have
patients and customers important.” maintaining a very low temperature and a solution to track and trace pharma
Çağdaş ATABAY, cargo product reaching the destinations where we products with the already printed
development, Turkish Airlines, said, never been before. And we took initiatives identification without heavy automation
Warehousing is an important element to address it." or scanners across the supply chain but
in the pharma supply chain and The third panel went on to with a simple mobile app.”
Turkish Cargo is investing to expand discuss the packaging solutions and Smrithi Kumar Iyer, AGM information
its capabilities in this segment to sustainability measures adopted by technology, Cargo Service Center, said,
offer the streamlined movement of pharma manufacturing and logistics "We have upgraded the ERP to enable
pharmaceuticals across our network.” companies. the real-time temperature monitoring
Gaurav Bhatia, general manager, Hristo Petkov, global head of mobile app Turant which helps the
Reliance Retail Pharma, said, “Most pharmaceuticals, A.P. Moller - Maersk, stakeholders across the supply chain
of the pharmaceutical companies are said, "We have evolved from shipping to know what is happening to their
now investing into the cold chain assets to integrated logistics solution provider shipments.”
as they see that the future is moving and therefore we care about supply Umesh P, head- export/ import
towards injectables and they require chain stakeholders and the society operations, SANOFI, said, “The
strict temp controlled environments. The around. Thus it is very important for us evolution of digitalisation and
new age retail and pharma e-commerce to think about sustainability." automation happens in a company
companies are filling the gap where Ravi Kumar T said, “We consider it as along with the culture of a company.
pharma companies used to face our responsibility to imbibe sustainability You must understand what you want
challenges. Once the products are handed into both our day to day operations and to achieve. This will not happen
over to a distributor or retailer, the long term goals taking care of how overnight. You must not go for sensors
pharma companies lose the control over shipments are moving around the world just because you want to announce
its environments affecting its efficacy. And and the packaging used." how technological advanced your
there are practices, for example, retailers While commenting that technology operations are. Technology should be
switch off entire power.” is evolving, Amardeep Chahal, SVP, applied if the business and product
Asking whether pharma companies strategy and corp. development, Cold requires it.”
have made any changes in their sourcing Chain Technologies noted that most

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