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Packaging, supply and logistics Transparency I
n a world where supply chains for medical products are often long and complex – spanning the world so medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies can find cost-efficient production capacity – it should be no surprise that Covid-19 caused major disruptions. But does it take a global health crisis to prove that these supply chains are fragile? The simple and straightforward answer is “no”.
The pandemic thrust supply chains into the public consciousness, with everyday goods in short supply and supermarket shelves empty. But over the last few decades, supply chain disruptions have repeatedly dogged the US healthcare system. They have cost healthcare providers millions of dollars, threatened clinical research, and heavily impacted patient safety. As the effects of the pandemics ease, the fragility of medical products supply chains continues to lurk just beneath the surface. It doesn’t help that the
is key
The US medical products supply chain has suffered many shocks in recent years, and although it endured the pandemic relatively well, it has not completely recovered thanks to a cocktail of other external factors. A report from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine highlights the key issues and how the industry might overcome them. Jim Banks speaks to George Ball, associate professor at Indiana University, who consulted on the report, to fi nd out more.
world is dealing with macroeconomic headwinds, rising inflation and a hot war in Ukraine with no end in sight. Indeed, some analysts suggest that we now live in a VUCA world, where ‘volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity’ reign, and in which constant, unpredictable change is the norm. In that environment, we need a framework of appropriate measures to underpin a cost-effective medical product supply chain resiliency strategy. That is what the Committee on Security of America’s Medical Product Supply Chain, which was convened by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), set out to create in 2022. “The supply chain has been resilient in instances where products are profitable, but where less is at stake it has been more brittle,” notes George Ball, associate professor at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and a member of the committee behind the NASEM report.
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Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
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