The Pharmaceutical Industry’s Sustainable Supply Chain

Authors

• Mark Little

  Former Director, Healthcare, Advisory Services, BSR

The Pharmaceutical industry is making great strides in a pre-competitive collaboration to improve sustainability in its supply chain. Since inception of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) in 2006, membership has nearly doubled to 14 companies, a recognition that “Big Pharma” sees a business case in working together to develop a common set of environmental, social, and ethical supplier standards. 

At the same time, suppliers are increasingly pro-active in reaching out to PSCI to demonstrate their support for these standards, formally termed Pharmaceutical Industry Principles for Responsible Supply Chain Management (“the Principles”). In 2011, PSCI launched a standard industry self-assessment questionnaire, a move that has been well received by suppliers who see benefits to filling out the PSCI questionnaire once rather than responding separately to multiple queries on similar topics.

Moving forward, in 2012, PSCI will strengthen its risk assessment tools with a shared audit program and a more formalized supplier capability building program.

Recognizing the group’s momentum, Pharmaceutical-Technology.com, a prominent trade publication, published a feature on PSCI’s leadership in developing sustainable supply chains. Visit Pharmaceutical-Technology.com to read their review of the group’s progress and its plans for the future.