Effective supply chain resilience in Healthcare embeds safety, redundancy, and continuous compliance into its design – helping pharma and biotech companies prevent failures before they impact patient outcomes.
The global trade, including tariffs, and recent geopolitical events have demonstrated, major disruptions can test our globalised pharma and biotech supply chains to the breaking point, harming patient outcomes, company revenues and reputations.
As a result, supply chain resilience has evolved from operational responsibility to strategic competitive advantage.
Why pharma supply chain disruption is increasing
The risks and complexities facing pharma and biotech supply chains have only increased. Today’s industry leaders face ongoing risks that include:
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Geopolitical volatility and conflicts
Geopolitics is now the single largest perceived risk for life sciences leaders – causing bottlenecks to logistics flows, airspace restrictions, and spikes in rerouting costs.Read more -
Geographic concentration of raw materials (APIs)
The production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) is heavily concentrated in a few countries in Asia, putting the global production of certain drug classes at risk if there is a regional disruption. -
Regionalisation
As a result of global instability – including tariffs and other policies favouring national or regional sovereignty over global trade – companies are adapting and diversifying their supply chains, moving toward a "China + 1" or "near-shoring" model. -
Equipment and labour shortages
Sudden shifts in demand often outpace the physical supply of specialised equipment or the availability of qualified personnel. -
Zero-tolerance regulatory and quality standards
Regulators have moved toward a zero-tolerance stance on deviations from Good Distribution Practice (GDP), even during active crises.
The result is a high degree of complexity and uncertainty for pharma and biotech supply chains.
What should companies do? Continuing business as usual can expose a company to damaging disruptions, whereas too much caution can result in fewer investments and slower growth. Most companies feel forced into a false binary: “just in time” or “just in case.”
But there is a choice beyond the binary: companies can balance speed and safety by moving beyond reactive contingency planning to an engineered framework – what we call “resilience by design.”
What should companies do? Continuing business as usual can expose a company to damaging disruptions, whereas too much caution can result in fewer investments and slower growth. Most companies feel forced into a false binary: “just in time” or “just in case.”
But there is a choice beyond the binary: companies can balance speed and safety by moving beyond reactive contingency planning to an engineered framework – what we call “resilience by design.”
What "resilience by design" means in pharma logistics on DSV
Proactively preparing a pharma or biotech business for disruptions – from tariffs to tsunamis – sets a series of requirements on the supply chain:
1. Global control and local agility
To effectively respond to disruptions, supply chains must combine the best of global scale and local, on-the-ground capabilities – including, crucially, skilled professionals who can provide hands-on support:
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Global scale:
With access to a mature logistics network reaching across the globe, companies gain quick access to alternative routes – not to mention international best practices and data insights.
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Local people, local intelligence:
In a crisis, strong relationships with people become paramount. Local knowledge is often the key to overcoming bottlenecks or other challenges. And as digital systems fall short, companies need the ability to contact local colleagues and deploy feet on the ground to help. -
Local business continuity planning (BCP)
For global pharma and biotech companies, every country of operation must have local continuity plans aligned with global standard operating procedures – effectively managing and mitigating local crises like power outages or regional tensions.
2. Supply chain redundancy
Resilience is engineered by designing alternative corridors before a disruption occurs, allowing for agile shifts of equipment and modes of transport. The design should include:
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Multi-modal options:
By integrating air, sea, road, and contract logistics (CL), companies can rapidly respond to changing conditions – for example, unloading cargo at alternative ports and completing delivery via road freight when primary corridors are blocked. Alternative modes of transport can also pre-emptively safeguard against disruption – for example, by choosing long-range trucking or sea freight options in a region at risk of airspace shutdowns. -
Dedicated verticals:
Pharma-specific experts – rather than generalist salespeople – design the redundant network solutions based on customer pain points and needs, integrating industry requirements and know-how into the solution. -
Agility in crises:
A resilient supply chain includes strong networks of people and non-automated processes. During major disruptions, when technology and digital systems often fail, manual planning and local relationships allow for dynamic resource allocation, such as securing GxP-approved trucks when market demand spikes.
3. End-to-end cold chain logistics
Maintaining temperature integrity is a primary requirement for supply continuity. A comprehensive range of capabilities can provide the versatility supply chains need to adapt to sudden bottlenecks, climate disruptions, and other challenges. The capabilities include:
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Validated infrastructure
Pharma companies should ensure their supply chain operates via a global network of GDP/GxP-compliant facilities that support temperatures from -80°C to +25°C. -
Cold chain via air, sea, or truck
For maximum agility in crisis situations, supply chains can leverage a full range of transport options – such as air charter networks with end-to-end cold chain control, alternative sea routes where reefer equipment is applied, or long-haul temperature-controlled road freight – overcoming disruptions with approaches to route redundancy and transport mode conversion that maintain temperature integrity.
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Cold chain packaging
Active and passive cooling, combined thermal packaging, phase change materials (PCMs), dry ice, and other pallet shipper options offer prolonged protection against disruptions like customs delays or port closures.
4. Risk prevention via predictive management
Proactive risk mitigation helps companies avoid costly recalls or shortages. A resilient supply chain requires a comprehensive approach to risk management, including:
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Lane risk assessments
Effective lane risk assessments identify and validate potential risks before cargo ever leaves the origin, enabling a faster and more adequate response to disruptions. -
Nonconformity management
A rigorous quality system uses nonconformance reports (NCRs) and corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) to understand the root cause of a problem, document deviations, and engineer permanent fixes to the supply chain. -
Stress-testing
Simulations stress test weather conditions and seasonal changes during transport validation to ensure packaging and routes are resilient to real-world volatility.
5. Visibility throughout the supply chain
For next-level risk prevention and predictive management, companies need real-time data monitoring, ensuring they can anticipate disruptions rather than merely reporting them. Full supply chain visibility must include:
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IoT and real-time monitoring:
24/7 control towers monitor GPS location, temperature, humidity, light, and shock, enabling predictive insights as well as immediate action. -
Proactive intervention:
If a temperature sensor peaks above the required 2°C–8°C range, the control tower can contact the nearest local branch to intervene and secure the cargo before product loss occurs. -
Inventory control:
Integration via API/EDI interfaces provides clear milestones, allowing companies to re-send alternative shipments proactively if the original cargo is compromised in transit.
Investing in market share and patient care - How logistics partners enable resilience
In a time when geopolitical shocks and trade realignments are everyday news, the risk to supply continuity has rarely been higher; companies face the threat of delays, damaged products, and even stock-outs. Those threats translate to lost revenues, damaged reputations, and compromised patient care.
Investing in resilience by design becomes an investment in market share. By engineering redundancy, global visibility, and local intelligence into the very core of the supply chain, pharmaceutical and biotech companies ensure that their commitment to patient care remains as unbreakable as their logistics network.
Investing in resilience by design becomes an investment in market share. By engineering redundancy, global visibility, and local intelligence into the very core of the supply chain, pharmaceutical and biotech companies ensure that their commitment to patient care remains as unbreakable as their logistics network.
Find out more about our Healthcare logistics solutions
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