A Wake-Up Call for the Life Sciences Industry

Business Unusual

Despite warnings from medical experts that a serious pandemic was inevitable, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 took the world by surprise.

In these times of already unprecedented complexity, volatility, and uncertainty, other more immediate and pressing business demands have kept organizations from preparing for this eventuality.

Above all else, the pandemic is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, directly affecting millions of people worldwide and causing the largest quarantine in human history.

Tragically, the human cost is already immense and still growing. But as biotech companies, public health organizations, and governments work to produce, ship, and administer vaccines to the global population, businesses in all sectors and geographies are also suffering major disruption, much of this centered on the supply chain.

As with COVID-19, failure to properly manage the flow of products through the supply chain can lead to chaotic and uncontrolled proliferation and a major risk to the health of a business.

In globalized supply chains, this is not just about disruption in supply from the higher echelons, but also the cascading down through the lower tiers, with interruptions likely to show up intermittently over a prolonged period, even after the pandemic has subsided.

At this time, no one is in a position to predict the duration and final social, human, and economic impact of this global pandemic.

One thing that is certain, however, is that this has lead to a ‘new normal' or, more accurately, a ‘never normal’ environment in a similar way that 9/11 redefined our perception of the world in 2001.

Contents

• What does it all mean?
• So, what should life sciences companies be doing?
• Transform to meet the ‘never normal’ business environment
• A wake-up call for the life sciences industry
• Adapt and evolve supply chains with AI-powered analytics