The Health Pulse: Modern Consumers Want to Know: How The Pharmaceutical Industry is Influencing Supply Chain Traceability

Grainne Lynch, Senior Manager and Traceability Lead for Accenture, helps pharmaceutical companies be compliant with supply chain legislation around preventing counterfeit medicines from entering the supply chain. Her expertise is around helping pharmaceutical manufacturers implement common capabilities and coding to allow tracking and tracing of products at the unit level. On this episode, Grainne explains to Greg that the pharmaceutical industry is on the forefront of a consumer-led trend demanding the ability to track and trace products end-to-end throughout the supply chain. Now more than ever, consumers want to know a product’s entire history—where it came from, how materials were sourced, where and when it was manufactured, and the process by which it was approved. And, consumers expect companies to be responsible for making good decisions throughout the supply chain. This trend toward greater tracking and tracing is being seen in many industries, and as Grainne explains, life sciences is a natural leader because the industry already has GxP requirements in place. Data and analytics of course play a critical role. For example, most pharmaceutical products require refrigeration, and devices are used to monitor and measure refrigeration throughout the supply chain to ensure the proper temperature level is maintained. Grianne leaves us with her thoughts on the importance of pharmaceutical traceability to the future growth of the industry as a whole. All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.