GS1 India, a global supply chain standards organization and  Association of Healthcare Providers (India) have conducted a comprehensive study on the healthcare supply chain in India. The findings and recommendations of the study was released as a report titled 'Building resilience in India’s post covid healthcare supply chain'. The report was released by Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD and CEO, Fortis Healthcare on 29th April at Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi on occasion of the GS1 India silver jubilee celebration.

Healthcare sector has been at the centre of COVID crisis. The challenges were numerous, beginning with managing multitude of patients affected, to managing the supply chain disruptions. In the midst of it all, the sector had to continuously innovate and come out with new ways of taking care of patients. Supply Chain disruptions during the pandemic led to drug and device shortage, which had a severe impact on the patients. This, coupled with reported fake and spurious medical products entering the supply chain, made the task of the stakeholders involved all the more challenging.

"Healthcare is all about outcomes. It is an industry, it also has financial implications, but what’s the most important are the health outcomes. And the health outcomes are dependent a lot on how the care is delivered. One of the biggest problems in health care is errors and that is something which can be resolved very easily by having this standardised nomenclature and product information.”

Objective of the study

GS1 India, in joint collaboration with Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), undertook a comprehensive study of the existing supply chain ecosystem of Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Manufacturers, the challenges faced and their impact on the other stakeholders in the Healthcare supply chain viz Hospitals, Retail and Online Pharmacies. The study also explored how global regulatory mandates have played a key role in Indian manufacturers implementing a track and trace system for exports and how the learnings can be applied in the domestic market supplies. The study was based on personal interviews and surveys of various stakeholders in the industry.

Findings of the study

The main findings of the study are as given below:   

1. In the current scenario, over 80 per cent of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Manufacturers do not have product visibility till point of care

2. Best-in-class pharma companies globally have inventory period of 64 days as compared to Indian counterparts having 98 days, leading to inefficient inventory management and adding to the inventory holding costs, driving the product prices upwards.

3. The overall supply chain, logistics and warehousing costs in India are 15 per cent higher compared to other countries.

4. More than 50 per cent of Pharma and medical devices manufacturers lose 1 per cent of their sales due to expiry and pilferage.

5. Nearly 69 per cent of survey respondents (Pharma and Medical Devices Manufacturers) do not have the capability to implement product recall beyond the distributor due to lack of end to end visibility.

Way forward presented in the report includes making the healthcare supply chain resilient which will require end-to-end supply chain visibility through digitalisation and use of global standards which facilitate interoperability. All the stakeholders including the government, the regulators and the industry need to work together to build a resilient healthcare supply chain.