< PreviousTRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT20 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.netPharmaceutical companies have always reached for high standards, but their customers now often expect them to go above and beyond their legal requirements to ensure absolute quality before they award contracts. This means manufacturers need to ensure their equipment and procedures are absolutely exceptional. Although the investment in training and technology requires some short term expenditure, the long term results can be hugely impressive, with companies able to compete at the very top level and be well-placed to land major contracts. The most successful companies in the pharmaceuticals sector are those which have benefited from innovation and investment in a high quality infrastructure. The pharmaceutical industry, like most other manufacturing sectors, is constantly in need of a steady stream of new talent, both to replace those who are lost to the industry through retirement and to ensure employees are well equipped with up to date knowledge of their roles and the industry as a whole. Initiatives such as the See Inside Manufacturing scheme in the UK helps achieve this by raising the profile of manufacturing and providing an excellent opportunity to identify new recruits – as well as developing existing employees who get the opportunity to pass on their skills. There are plenty of examples of how stronger links between businesses and educational establishments are reaping the Always recruiting There’s big money in pharma, but that attracts competition, and every company is drawing from an ever-shrinking pool of talent 22 Á20-23.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:44 Page 1Pharma Business International 21 www.pbiforum.netTRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT© Shutterstock /anyaivanova20-23.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:44 Page 2TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT22 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.netrewards for employers and employees alike. Many are working together as part of Industrial CASE Studentships, to support cutting-edge research into some of the current pressing medical and biological challenges. The studentships fund four-year collaborative PhD projects supervised jointly by a member of academic staff and an industrial partner. Studentships are principally based at the academic partner, with a mandatory placement at the non-academic partner for a minimum of three and up to eighteen months. The University of Leicester has been awarded four of these studentships, allowing businesses to take advantage of burgeoning medical and biological research talent. The biggest problem comes as a result of a decline in many countries of graduates within fields applicable to the industry – or sciences in general. Within the UK this is very pronounced, and other countries are finding similar results. Initiative such as STEM are working to make science subjects more appealing to younger audiences, in hopes that this will create a long term solution, but it does little to prop up problems in the short term. Short-term solutions are limited to two realistic options. Firstly, that companies invest more in their recruitment strategies, to attract the best talent available – limited as it may be. Headhunting and aggressive marketing campaigns might help to take talent from rivals, but the risk is that such actions can cause rifts between companies who might have before had positive relations. Also there is the fact that employees who were tempted away by a company have already proven that they will move where the grass is greenest, meaning that a counter-push by another company might have them moving on once more. The other option is to invest more in developing the skills of existing or new employees to fill the gap in the market. This is something of a medium-term approach, as the training might take some time in its own right, but it still should end in the same results. In these cases employees might be more willing to stay loyal to the company, as they have invested in helping the employee expand their skills. This can also boost motivation and morale within the organisation. That said, it can be as expensive as recruitment itself, especially if it’s a large number of people being trained up. In addition, there is the risk of the employees failing such programmes or struggling to absorb material. In many cases this is something which can be mitigated with careful planning, however. Employees should be interviewed and selected based on their merits, including likeliness to stick to the course, invest their time in learning outside of work time – and overall previous performance for the company. Employees who have proven their worth in the past will surely do so again in the future, so why not train them to take over more important roles?20-23.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:44 Page 3Pharma Business International 23 www.pbiforum.netTRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT© Shutterstock /Comaniciu Dan20-23.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:44 Page 4COLD CHAIN24 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.netPharma on ice When it comes to maintaining the temperature integrity of pharmaceutical products, it’s best to look at the supply chain and, in particular, storage and distribution centres. 24-27.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:46 Page 1Pharma Business International 25 www.pbiforum.netCOLD CHAINIt’s vital to ensure that products stay at the correct temperature throughout the process, and that accurate information is available across the extensive supply chain. That’s especially the case in the pharmaceuticals sector where products can often be compromised by changes to temperature. Both the pharmaceutical and the food industry face similar challenges in this regard, with their respective products being highly susceptible to the slightest changes in temperature. This is hardly news to the pharmaceutical industry, and every manufacturer in the world likely already has some form of careful temperature control system in place. But that doesn’t seem to stop the wastage that occurs as a result of variances in temperature. So, what has been going wrong? For many companies, problems seem to occur in the supply chain, or on distribution lines. While the product is still in the primary manufacturing facility the process is much more regulated and controlled, but it is easier to achieve that in a state-of-the-art facility where the process is mostly automated. At the hand-over point between manufacturing facility and distribution, there is 26 Á© Shutterstock /Kokloiang24-27.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:46 Page 2COLD CHAIN26 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.netobviously a point where human elements need to get involved, be it in end-of-line packaging, or materials handling. These points of transference from one part of the supply chain to another represent significant breach points in the temperature integrity of pharmaceutical products and should have particular attention attributed to them. When it comes to distribution centres which play a key role in the supply chain towards the retail market, the costs of temperature control systems can quickly scale out of control. Therefore, it’s important at all times to focus on methods of efficiently maintaining temperature levels, with as little ambient loss of temperature as possible. At the end of the day, it’s far more expensive to keep air cool, then it is to warm it up. Doors and loading bays create an immediate but necessary breach in a warehouse’s defences, allowing the cooler air inside to escape via convection currents. What’s more, this is an inescapable consequence, as the ultimate goal of these facilities is to store and ship out pharmaceutical products as quickly as possible to their final destination. As such while it might be result in energy savings to install a number of doors between the cold storage facility, and the loading bays. This only slows down the productivity of the workers within, and how soon they can have the stock shipped out. Air curtains provide a potential solution to this problem, or at the very least minimise the loss of heat at loading bays. A cold store air curtain works by creating a curtain of air that 24-27.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:46 Page 3Pharma Business International 27 www.pbiforum.netCOLD CHAINcuts through currents, creating a barrier between the external ambient air, and the chilled temperature within a cold store. The greatest benefit of these systems is not just the ability for the air curtain to minimise energy loss through temperature contamination, but also to allow continual access for any workers. There is no door to be opened or closed, and the curtain is safe for workers to travel through as they deliver and remove palletised goods. Not only does this improve general efficiency within the cold store, but it also enables rooms to be kept at varying temperatures – important when a facility might have to cater for a wide range of pharmaceutical products, that might require varying levels of refrigerated storage. Of course, there is more to efficiently running a temperature-controlled storage facility than plugging up the entrances. Managing stock within the distribution centre can become increasingly more complex, as the temperatures are kept lower. For instance, machinery and systems that rely on battery power can come under risk, as continued exposure to the cold has a negative impact on batteries – typically resulting in 50% degradation to batter life. This can become a larger concern with the recent move towards electric lift trucks and fork-lifts, which can see vehicles running out of juice at inopportune moments. Ultimately the supply chain is what causes a proportion of losses due to cold storage and distribution, and when it comes to plugging the gaps, these are possibly the areas to pay more attention to. © Shutterstock /Kojkliang24-27.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:46 Page 4PROCUREMENT28 Pharma Business International www.pbiforum.netThe procurement of drug treatments and medical devices is by no means an easy process for health bodies and service providers. As well as the regulatory and legislative issues to consider, there’s also financial concerns to take into account, all of which can jeopardised a new treatment being put on the NHS and putting patients at risk. One of the first things to consider in the procurement of any prospective medicine or treatment is to estimate the quantity of each drug product required for a given period. This is particularly important for seasonal illnesses such as flu. In these cases, previous years can be used as a watermark to estimate the quantity needed. But as has been proved before, not estimating enough can prove disastrous. By the same rationale, procuring too much risks eating up budget which could be better spent elsewhere. Price is of course one of the biggest considerations here, with procurement dependent on finding the prices of the different storage forms required. Price comparison should also be considered, where available, when considering brand name over generic. A compelling body of evidence confirms that generics are the equal of their branded counterparts. Typically, the only difference is one of price and patent. When a drug maker has the patent for a treatment it holds exclusivity and can therefore charge whatever price it deems appropriate. We’ve seen this issue play out time and again of late in myriad price gouging scandals. Generics, on the other hand, are often significantly cheaper and can enable health care providers – such as the NHS – get more for their money, stretching an already fraught budget that bit further. Budgeting is critical, a plan of action, so procurement depends on allocating funds for each drug dosage form. This will depend on the priority nature of the drug and dosage form – i.e. ones with the greatest need and demand – and available finances. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to consider and in this carefully considered process there’s plenty that can go wrong, and Procuring a solution There’s a lot of financial and regulatory hurdles to overcome in the procurement of drugs and medical treatments. Sometimes, however, there’s also pharmaceutical companies themselves to consider as the NHS discovered. 30 Á28-31.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:46 Page 1Pharma Business International 29 www.pbiforum.netPROCUREMENT© Shutterstock /goffkein.pro28-31.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:46 Page 2Next >