Many therapeutic companies have large, complex, and challenging supply chains that were not designed for the stressors of a post pandemic landscape. This complexity increases the number of possible failure points, resulting in material delays and delayed release of therapeutics. To avoid these pitfalls, it is critical to partner with a materials supplier with full control over their own supply chain and manufacturing processes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed global supply chains in unforeseen ways, the spike in demand can be seen across all product segments, not only therapeutics. Companies and consumers have been left scrambling for quick solutions while lead times for raw materials increase. How can the market work towards finding time sensitive solutions without affecting the integrity of the supply chain?

A robust and reliable partner

To maintain the resilience of the therapeutic supply chain several strategies have been proposed including increased production and maintaining safety stock. Increasing production and safety stock can only be effective if there is enough foresight to plan for a problem, develop a solution and react accordingly. However, these are based on best guesses from the people forecasting the issue with real economic impacts to the company if they overestimate and must discard materials or underestimate and are still without their required materials.

A better and more reliable way is to choose the correct partner. By partnering with a company like Astrea Bioseparations, adsorbent lead times can be controlled without having to overproduce or have large amounts of safety stock on hand. Astrea Bioseparations can accomplish this through vertically integrating the development and manufacturing processes and facilities. Astrea Bioseparations produces the ligands, beads and finished adsorbents and can quickly react and adjust production outputs to help therapeutic suppliers maintain their supply chains. Additionally, the on-site production capabilities allow for far greater flexibility than those suppliers who contract out aspects of the production process. By streamlining the production process, complexity is removed, consistently delivering products on time.

As we look toward the future, environmental impact will increasingly become a supply chain pressure and new regulation and customer expectations take effect. Companies that utilize chemicals which can impact the environment should expect to see production costs skyrocket while total production may decrease while they navigate new regulations. Astrea Bioseparations’ proprietary manufacturing process is entirely aqueous, meaning no harmful chemicals are used and need to be disposed of after manufacturing.

Conclusion

There are many different stressors on therapeutic supply chains; from increased demand post pandemic to geopolitical and manufacturing challenges. While there are several different strategies companies can adopt to mitigate some of these challenges, choosing the correct adsorbent supplier can yield the best outcomes. By choosing an adsorbent supplier like Astrea Bioseparations, with integrated development and manufacturing capabilities, therapeutic suppliers can streamline and strengthen their supply chains. Because Astrea Bioseparations controls all aspects of their manufacturing process, they can be agile enough to adjust production output to maintain continuity of supply of critical products.