Mike Hennessy Jr.

Mike Hennessy Jr, chairman and CEO, MJH Life Sciences

Every stakeholder’s role in the pharmaceutical supply chain is just as important as the next, and that certainly holds true for that of the drug wholesaler. Essentially, these businesses serve as an intermediary between manufacturers and the downstream chain—after buying medications in bulk from manufacturers, they then distribute these goods to pharmacies, hospitals, and the like.

, Editor Emeritus Nick Basta dives deep into the 

 and notes that, overall, despite the uproar over tariffs, drug costs, and FDA policy, these companies are performing generally well. For one, the Big Three of McKesson, Cencora, and Cardinal Health have maintained steady outputs, with revenues and operating incomes rising at near-double-digit rates last year and so far in 2025. The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, the trade association for US wholesalers, calculates that more than 95% of all prescription shipments are handled by wholesaler-distributors.

Basta also adds that despite antitrust leaders’ criticism of the multitude of acquisitions made by wholesalers as involving potentially exclusionary practices, community practitioners can be a practical alternative to increasingly consolidated health systems that have their own antitrust concerns. In addition, the Big Three can be a helpful backstop for the independent practitioners, experts contend.

It’s important to keep in mind that the stated end goal from all supply chain stakeholders is usually patient access to vital drugs. In pivoting from our August lead feature, a key such component is the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which allows certain providers to purchase meds at discounted prices in order to assist vulnerable populations. However, the federal program does not come without its challenges, 

. She writes that, “the increasing complexity of the drug discount ecosystem, paired with a lack of transparent data and insufficient oversight of the growing 340B program itself, has led to unintended discount duplication and unsustainable program costs. When these programs don’t function as intended, patients ultimately pay the price.”

Patients are continuing to have issues even with healthcare plans covering certain drugs to begin with, especially for chronic conditions. In her 

 this month, Amy Niles of the PAN Foundation reports that since the start of 2025, more than a third (35%) of adults with a chronic condition have faced barriers accessing their medication(s)/treatment(s) through their healthcare plan. She unveils more telling numbers in her piece. As always, thanks for reading.

— Mike Hennessy Jr is chairman and CEO of MJH Life Sciences

Articles

In the August issue of Pharmaceutical Commerce, dive into the vital role of drug wholesalers in today's complex pharma supply chain, along with content spotlighting evolving challenges patients face in accessing medicines.

A Pharma Wholesaler Scorecard

A common thread across our content offerings in the 

 is the need for life sciences companies—and their supply chain partners—to be perhaps more agile than ever in the face of today’s host of industry challenges and disruption.

 by guest experts from Kotter, a management consulting firm, who lay out a game plan for embracing and scaling agility and adaptability into biopharma operations.

“Pharma leaders need to think differently about how to run their businesses—and bring their people along with inevitable transformative change,” they write. “In addition to a continued focus on growing drug pipelines, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence and data in research and development, companies have a renewed focus on the supply chain.”

While providing Big Pharma examples of the latter, the authors go on to outline the three key characteristics they believe “adaptable” organizations must possess. In turn, they also outline three core strategies to help execute on those characteristics. I won’t give them all away here, but suffice to say, they impact all levels of business and encompass varying aspects—from internal technology systems to developing “stronger change muscles.”

“To keep up with customer demands, emerging technology, and shifting regulatory changes, pharma leaders need to evolve how work gets done,” the authors state matter-of-factly.

The messages this month from our regular contributing columnists and KOLs are as compelling as ever, in my opinion. Particularly echoing the agility theme, I thought, is our June patient support 

 by Chris Dowd of ConnectiveRx. Dowd reminds us that, despite all the policy maneuvering, or “whiplash” as he describes it, occurring in the US today, patient hubs remain the one constant where pharma manufacturers maintain direct control—a reality that he believes will endure regardless of which policy changes end up materializing.

So, in essence, a doubling-down, if you will, on tapping patient hub services/channels to conquer drug access hurdles is crucial in the current climate. It’s crucial if all the efforts toward boosting patient adherence are to rise above the noise of policy.

“Manufacturers must maintain laser focus on the speed and efficiency of their hub onboarding tactics, particularly in those critical first 24 hours after prescription,” writes Dowd.

These are just a couple highlights of similar-toned articles and discussions in the June issue. It’s safe to conclude that agility and adaptability are no longer just buzzwords. They have become strategic imperatives.

The June issue of Pharmaceutical Commerce highlights the importance of embracing agility—and adaptable strategies—to better navigate industry challenges.

The Art of Agility

Mike Hennessy Jr., President and CEO, MJH Life Sciences

The pharmaceutical cold chain—the portion of the industry operating and advancing technological advances in temperature-sensitive transport, pallets, data loggers, sensors, and even new developments in freight services—is an all-encompassing topic, for sure.

 attempts to keep pace with the sector's accelerated activity, headlined by Nick Basta’s 

 exploring cold-chain product distribution services and approaches—efforts that are continuing to experience success due to their evolution with the times.

“… Clients of cold chain services can rely on increasingly sophisticated packaging, containerization, and delivery technologies,” wrote Basta. “Vendors are building out more options for delivering products safely and securely, and while regulatory screws continue to tighten around shipment documentation and sustainability and environmental restrictions, new technologies offer alternative pathways to compliance. All in all, it makes for a lively market for investment in vendor growth.”

In that same breath, artificial intelligence (AI) in particular—albeit perhaps still a buzzword—has helped optimize the pharma transport process, as 

, Purav Gandhi of Healthark Insights notes that there is no doubt that pharma logistics is a complicated machine, but AI can streamline processes by filling in the gaps as it relates to such areas as dynamic route planning; real-time tracking; cost-efficiency optimization; advanced temperature reporting; regulatory compliance monitoring; and predictive analytics.

On another note, speaking of regulations, most would agree that the Inflation Reduction Act is a challenging one to navigate for many industries. In the pharma R&D space, this sentiment is no different. In a 

 this month, Model N’s Jesse Mendelsohn reminds on how the advancement of promising, lifesaving drugs requires significant R&D investments. On average, new molecular entities cost $2.3 billion each to develop, largely funded by existing drug sales. But, meanwhile, pharma companies are under increasing pressure from the government to reduce prescription drug prices, which, in turn, presents a significant hurdle to maintaining the R&D pipeline.

Our April issue also provides expert commentary on behalf of 

, and, of course, our esteemed columnists.

— Mike Hennessy Jr., President and CEO, MJH Life Sciences

The April issue of Pharmaceutical Commerce examines the accelerated activity—and many ever-expanding layers—of temperature-sensitive transport in pharma.

The Cold Chain's Evolution

2025 is upon us, officially marking a quarter of a century since Y2K and the midpoint of the decade. There is no doubt that time does quickly fly by, and with that, the

The first edition of the year is powered by a 

 at pharmaceutical third-party logistics providers (3PLs)—those organizations responsible for handling the logistics for a range of products that are unable to be accomplished by a manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser. This year, Editor Nicholas Saraceno once again provides a deep dive into the fluid role of 3PLs, the lessons they learned post-COVID-19, the key trends impacting industry, and more via a roundtable-type discussion with leaders in the sector.

Also examined this month is an issue impacting communities throughout the US—retail pharmacy closures. In fact, a December 2024 study from researchers at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and USC found that about one in three retail pharmacies in the country have closed their doors since 2010. As a result, pharmacy deserts—areas where city residents live more than a mile away from the nearest pharmacy—are increasing in frequency. In her 

, Jenni Zilka of Good Neighbor Pharmacy and Cencora elaborates on the troubling trend, sharing that pharmacy deserts are located in areas that are up to 40% more likely to have fewer primary care providers and higher social vulnerabilities, such as poverty and lack of access to transportation.

Switching gears to some of our column highlights: in 

 of his new “Popping the Gross-to-Net Bubble" series, Bill Roth of IntegriChain describes the steps that pharma manufacturers can take to address these revenue gaps. One is to revisit history to determine what approaches have been successful, including, for example, cross-functional collaboration.

And I would be remiss not to announce a sincere welcome to two new KOL voices to the regular 

 commentary slate in 2025. Sean O’Hearen of 1st Line Partners will present unique insights on brand protection and product integrity challenges in pharma, while Chris Dowd of ConnectiveRx will dig into the always changing and deeply layered issues prevalent in patient support. Both columns debut this month 

Our February issue is highlighted by an examination of the latest trends and strategies from the perspective of third-party logistics providers, and introduces new expert commentary covering a pair of pivotal realms in the pharma supply chain journey. 