A recent international survey reveals that 40% of patients who rely on prescription drugs suspect that supply chain disruptions will put them at risk for illness and death from ineffective, contaminated, counterfeit, expired, or improperly labeled or stored products.The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Vision Study, by the workflow solutions company Zebra Technologies Corp., surveyed more than 3,500 patients and pharmaceutical executives to gauge perceptions of supply chain resilience, responsibility, and trust and identify ways to improve drug pipeline visibility and transparency.
The report was released on Feb 8.While consumers became more aware of global supply chain dependencies and weaknesses amid COVID-19, the report authors said, these problems were already well-rooted in the drug industry."While the COVID-19 pandemic posed outsized challenges to the pharmaceutical industry, many of its supply chain issues were not new," the report authors wrote. "Current events and a shifting regulatory environment drive the need for supply chain enhancements and transparency from raw materials to manufacturer to pharmacy."Desire to identify drug, ingredient country of originNinety percent of patients indicated that being able to verify that their medications were not counterfeit, tampered with, or stored at an improper temperature is somewhat or very important.
Eighty-one percent said that medication manufacturers should have to disclose how their medications are made, and 82% said that they want to know how their drugs were transported and stored.Eighty percent of patients said that they want to be able to verify country of origin for drug ingredients and local standards for production of drugs.