Challenges Facing Pharma Supply Chains

In a video interview with Pharma Commerce, Alex Guillen, global pharma and life sciences director at Tive, highlights a significant concern: the rapid advancement of technology and its potential misuse by organized crime. While technology itself is not inherently dangerous, the pharma industry's slow adoption of emerging tech, such as IoT devices, sensors, and cloud-based integration, has made it vulnerable. Guillen points out that other industries have embraced these technologies much faster, enhancing their security and efficiency, while the pharma sector has lagged behind.

This technological lag creates a critical vulnerability for pharmaceutical companies, especially in supply chain management, where the risk of cyberattacks and system breaches is growing. The fast pace of technological development, coupled with the industry's lack of preparedness to defend against these threats, makes pharma particularly susceptible to malicious activities, including hacking and data manipulation. Guillen emphasizes that the industry's relatively slow uptake of advanced technologies like IoT and cloud computing has left them exposed to potential risks, especially from organized criminal groups leveraging these tools for nefarious purposes.

Ultimately, Guillen suggests that the key challenge for the pharma industry moving forward will be to rapidly enhance its technological capabilities and adopt a more proactive approach to security. By doing so, pharma companies can better protect themselves against the evolving landscape of threats, ensuring that their supply chains remain secure and resilient in the face of these emerging risks.

Guillen also comments on a 2024 report surrounding pharma supply chain security and visibility, what needs to be done in the United States to increase manufacturing output, and much more.

A transcript of his conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: Generally speaking, what immediate risks and challenges lie ahead for pharma supply chains here in 2025?

Guillen: The biggest threat for the industry right now is technology in a way, but it's not technology in itself, but rather, it’s the capability for the pharma industry to be reactive and to be able to counter the danger of organized crimes using technology. Technology is growing very fast, so as fast as it's growing, I think it's also important that companies learn how to protect themselves, defend themselves against that. We all know that even though pharmaceutical companies in relation to research and development, and manufacturing. They are quite slow in the edge of technologies, and in the supply chain, they have been quite slow. There are other industries that are much faster in terms of using IoT sensors, IoT devices, cloud information integration with different systems.

There are other industries that are much more advanced this. The pharma industry has been quite slow in adopting that, which has actually made them more vulnerable to potential threats when it comes to technology—being able to hack systems or enter into systems. I think that's the biggest threat, but threat because of the lack of experience and lack of productivity by the industry itself.