COVID-19 is first and foremost a humanitarian crisis and the role played ll article by pharmaceutical organizations is fundamentally critical. As pharma leaders focus on their crisis responses, it is important to consider these questions and the implications for their respective companies in increasing their flexibility and better adapting to the post-COVID-19 world.
The pandemic is bringing a lot of uncertainty and turmoil to the pharmaceutical industry, and more broadly across the healthcare ecosystem. But it also has inspired new ways of thinking, collaborating and operating a business—all at a pace that we’ve never quite seen before. There is a new normal that doesn’t feel normal at all. And the old adage of”Business as Usual” seems to be now replaced with “Business as Unusual”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many across the industry have been highly responsive. Industry operations leaders have rallied to enable the supply of key medicines all over India and abroad, to manage workforce safety, and handle evolving government restrictions, all while beginning to prepare for new medicines, vaccines and other therapeutics. And most companies have put crisis-response command centres in place to appropriately manage and bring stability to an otherwise unstable time.
Pharma companies are now more focused on operational resilience and accelerating initiatives that enable more agility—including workforce agility as workforces become more remote and distributed—and transparency through greater deployment of digital and analytics tools and automation.
Within operations functions, new capabilities will also now be needed as the workforce shifts from manual skills to more technical skills. As the adoption of digital and analytics tools and automation increases, pharmaceutical-operations organizations may have a greater need for talent that can program, operate, and interpret data from these new technologies. This will require significant up-skilling and capability-building efforts alongside ongoing strategic planning.
While the human cost and economic disruptions of the global pandemic have created shock waves, the mission of the pharma industry to maintain a steady supply of vital medicines and deliver new innovation has provided a powerful focus for leadership teams. Other sectors may be more threatened, but the business challenges facing pharma are urgent, like ensuring that supply chains are functioning so patients can get needed medicines and remain on critical therapies. With much at stake, pharma top executives are moving decisively to ensure patient health, manage disruptions and lead the development of a vaccine, antiviral or other therapeutic solution for Covid-19.
During these unprecedented times, pharmaceutical companies are responding to the rapid challenges arising from disruption in supply chains and the need to change business processes. If the current COVID-19 pandemic lasts for a medium/long span of time, it may impact the supply of active material and ingredients (mainly from China), as well as the import and export of pharmaceuticals. There is also the potential for negative impacts of both medium-term and longer-term nature on R&D and manufacturing activities, as well as delay on projects/programmes not related to the core supply chain/data management operations.
At the industry level, for example, network strategy has evolved. Landed costs are no longer the key metric as the focus shifts to the cost implications of location risk. As the pandemic has reinforced, supply chains can be at significant risk when there is overreliance on a location that may be vulnerable to disruption. Shifting production locations so that production is closer to end markets or in lower-risk countries that are less subject to disruption are now routine considerations in risk mitigation.
Supply chains are also becoming more patient-centric due to the increased adoption of digital tools, telehealth, and app-based ecosystems. New technologies are emerging, such as mRNA-based vaccines, that may alter the market dynamics for capacity.
The advent of COVID19 has literally forced the pharma marketers in India to embrace options in digitization. Many are wondering or even repenting or not having been prepared in the past when they had the time and are now scrambling to stand out. They appear to be left with only an either/or option - either adopt the new normal with digital and integrate with the traditional functioning; or adopt the new "normal" calling it a new "temporary abnormal phase" and wait to get back to the traditional ways of working.
In the long term, COVID-19 will upend many industry standards. Demands for changes in sourcing, supply chain and production will challenge everyone. This will also be an opportunity. Disruption is the catalyst for change. Savvy leaders in pharmaceutical manufacturing will accelerate innovation and speed new ways of doing business, from digital to Big Data, artificial intelligence, the industrial internet of things (IIoT) and machine-learning to improve processes and quality.
Our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji organised a Video Conference with pharma industry stakeholders on 21st March. I participated in the VC along with a few Industry stalwarts. We assured the Prime Minister that we have ensured that there is enough stock of medicines in the market and there will not be any shortages. Two days later, the Prime Minister announced nationwide lockdown. I am happy to inform you that the pharma industry stakeholders, the manufacturers, distributors, retailers etc are all working in unison to ensure that there are no shortages. We have also assured the people of India through TV, social media etc not to hoard the medicines as there will plenty available.
The need for social distancing has had the a maximum impact on Marketing – especially Medical Sales Representatives (MSRs) Although most companies are leaning away from anything that could come off as “promotional,” they are adopting new methods to meet physicians’ needs now such as Webinars, telecallsetc, though the visits to doctors might still continue, but maybe one visit only per month instead of 3 or 4 visits.
"How to contact doctors and remind them of our brand?" are the questions that are making entire industry marketers' minds restless. The lockdown and need for social distancing triggered floods of branded emails, SMS & WhatsApp messages. There has been indeed so much flooding that many doctors out of frustration have started replying or some even posting messages on social media in distress that they are getting 100s of messages daily. The industry has also apparently gone in SOS mode and there starts a tsunami of webinars.
With MSRs working from home, it’s a good time to prepare content that doctors might need as and when things begin to normalize. Companies also can focus this time on filling gaps in content that don’t fit the “new” digital platforms for content delivery.
A friend who happens to be a practising MD in Mumbai told me that he gets around 4-6 webinar invites on a daily basis. At any point, we must not undermine the webinar platform for a few negative reactions, as doctors do get attracted and oblige by attending the webinar if the title/topic is good and provocative. However, the "annoyance" should not outweigh "engagement"
Meanwhile, digital interventions like telehealth are moving care out of hospitals and clinics and bringing services like counselling right into patients’ homes. Even though these tools are being used at an unprecedented pace, the digital platform does have some drawbacks: It’s not as effective for certain therapy areas and some patients lack the resources to access the technology.
There will be several resets in a post-COVID-19 world. The way we work will definitely be one of them. Even after the lockdown ends, sweeping transformations will be seen in the way workplaces and workforces operate. The pullback in economic activity due to Covid19 will slow the pace of hiring in the immediate future, but looking further out, the crisis is likely to reshape the recruiting landscape.
Post COVID-19, we will witness a transition in working pattern and workplace culture. While most of us will be better equipped to work remotely, some will have to cope with restricted workforce and workplace restrictions.
With the restriction on headcount at the workplace, emphasis is to maintain productivity. This could result in massive and rapid adoption of automation. Hence, people should focus on up-skilling and re-skilling in automation to maintain productivity factor at the manufacturing plants. The workforce has now become more distributed, thereby increasing the demand for them to be adept at not only functional skills but also skills such as creativity, innovation, complex problem-solving, cognitive abilities and social skills. Therefore they should focus on building digital skills, learning new productivity and collaboration skills which will be critical for continued success.
Companies will have to restore the confidence and morale of employees by ensuring minimum wages, welfare and health safety. After the ordeal they have been going through, employers will have to give psychological comfort. Management’s first job will be to minimize general health risks, and be sensitive to employee concerns. In the meantime, management must deal with the very real, here and now concerns of employees.
As the future of work becomes more remote and distributed, demand may shift to new capabilities and talent. Re-evaluating the future of work will be a key focus for most pharmaceutical companies.
The post-COVID-19 workforce and organization will also likely adopt new, more efficient ways of working. Out of necessity, organizations have stopped a great deal of relatively low-value work during the COVID-19 slowdown and developing ways to be more efficient and productive. Organizations focussed on retaining and building on these new efficiencies will do well when work resumes.
One of the big consequences that we’re going to be reflecting back on with how the COVID-19 crisis was handled is not what happened with patients that were positive for the virus, but all the patients that weren’t treated for other diseases as a result of not being able to see a doctor or be hospitalized, and the bigger, longer-term impact.
Companies are beginning to take stock of what lies ahead. Given the shifts that have taken place seemingly overnight in response to the immediate crisis, companies are also turning their attention to recovery and the path to the next normal. This will likely bring about fundamental changes in pharma operations. While individual companies will drive many of these changes, some will be driven industry-wide, and external factors, including government’s involvement, will also have impact on shaping the post-COVID-19 recovery.
Companies should consider re-evaluating their strategies, risk tolerance, and overall network footprint to address these risks. Their considerations may include how much excess capacity they will need, dual sourcing, and geographic diversification. Make versus buy decisions will also be impacted and will be dependent on the way companies evaluate their partnerships with contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), such as how much control they want to have, the need to choose partners based on diversifying locations and other considerations that balance cost versus risk.
These shifts may have fundamental implications for sourcing, supply chain and distribution networks. There may also be a shift away from global supply chains to self-sufficient local supply chains as being considered by India, USA, EU and other countries. These changes may require sourcing strategies to evolve, as there will be areas of limited supply in the short term and fundamental changes in the long term as manufacturing organizations and supplier industries change and potentially consolidate. To adapt to this evolution, more agile and strategic procurement organizations may emerge.
A definite long-term change will be an increase in demand for factory workers in pharma and allied industries, as companies lessen their dependence on China and set up large API manufacturing units, as proposed by Government under the PLI scheme. India has the unique advantage of already having a substantial generics manufacturing base and if India manages to increases production capacity through immediate investment in APIs, it stands to gain as possibly the biggest manufacturer and exporter of pharma generics and APIs in the world,
• Government wanted to ensure abundant supply of APIs and medicines for our people and only then release the same for exports.
• Co-operation, Collaboration and Information-sharing among Members
• Sharing of data, experiences between various Associations, specially IDMA, IPA and OPPI was phenomenal.
• Industry – Government interaction saw another level – something that was never experienced, never heard of.
• Special Whatsapp group was formed with Association Heads, Experts and Government officials –DOP, CDSCO, DCG(I), NPPA
• Sincere thanks and appreciation to DOP Secretary Dr P D Vaghela, Joint Secretary Mr NavdeepRinwa, DCG(I) Dr V G Somani, Jt DCG(I) Dr Eswara Reddy, NPPA Chairperson Madam Shubhra Singh
• Government officials, Association Heads and their staff jointly rose to the occasion in supporting Member-manufacturers in getting travel and transport permits for men, materials, ancillary products, finished products
• Together the attendance at factories and the capacity utilisation went up tremendously from 20/30% in April to 60/70% in May/June.
• Companies demonstrated their penchant to supply lifesaving medicines at any cost, without bothering about profit or loss
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