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Reliable Supply, Real Impact: How Consistent, On-Time Delivery Supports Pharmacy Operations | Yaral Pharma · Pharmacy Podcast Network

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: You're Raal Pharma, an innovative player in the US generics marketplace,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: has partnered with the Pharmacy Podcast Network to educate and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: build a network of pharmacists. Learn more at your rolpharma
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: dot com.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to the Pharmacy Podcast Network. This is
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: sponsored by your ralph Pharma. We are in the studio
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: again with my friend Steve Beckman.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: I love the studio. It's very cozy.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's a vibe. I always try to get the light
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: to the vibe. And this light right here that's on
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: me is broke and I and the light on you
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: is the correct one.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: But I have to get a new ball. It's more
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: like I have a halo. Yeah about that, It's like,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, we'll get you there. That's hilarious. There go.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Hey, we're doing things differently. We had a great episode
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: last time. We kind of dug into the philosophy of
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: your Ralph Pharma, kind of the mapping out of where
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the organization's going, as well as collaboration. Shout out, thank you,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: by the way, several listeners reaching out to us and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: being interested in certain things that are happening in your
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: lives as pharmacists and treating people in the treatment programs.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: But today we're going to do things a little differently
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and we're going to shift some gears.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Steve, and what are we going to go over today?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: What does this mean when we see reliable supply and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: real impact?
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Well, look at you know, at the end of the day,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: if the drugs aren't on the shelf when the patient
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: needs it's it's kind of.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: A bad thing, right point. That's a new point.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think, you know, one of the things
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: that I think is important for pharmacists and anybody to
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: know is that you know, what does that supply chain
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: look like and kind of what how it works and
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: how we look at it from a manufacturing standpoint, because
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: ultimately there's a lot of facets to it. Right when
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: you think of supply chain, it's not only acquiring the
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: API and componentry, then manufacturing, then quality assurance and quality
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: control releases, and then product being shipped, product being received, uh,
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: then product being distributed through our direct customers like wholesalers
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: and distributors, and then ultimately gets down to the pharmacy, pharmacy,
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: the patients, et cetera. So I think one of the
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: things we thought would be interesting is that people understand
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: kind of what what we're held accountable for, what the
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: what are the challenges and the opportunities that critical. And
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: one of the great things I learned for my due diligence,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: and one of the reasons I joined the company was
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: the company has just a tremendous history in that they
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: make the commitment the ownership of the business of the
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: company has throughout their entire period of owning the business,
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: has made that a priority. And I think, you know
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: that is important because partly we get penalized if we're
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: not superstars and supply chain, but also it could be
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: the difference between somebody getting a product and not getting
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: a product and one of our products that we currently
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: manufacture and sell. There's a kind of a supply demand
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: challenge where there's more demand than there is supply based
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: on some changes in the market as a whole, other
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: manufacturers that have left the business and things like that.
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: So now all of a sudden, we're trying to figure
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: out a way to do things as efficiently and effectively
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: or doing things better to minimize that impact. For example,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: so if if you've got an acute product, which this
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: particular product is, and patients can't get it, then that
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: product can't help it. And if that's the right product,
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: we'd love to make sure they have it available for them. So,
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: you know, it's it's really important that we understand that
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: there's multi layers to the delivery of drugs to a patient,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: and we thought maybe this would be a good topic
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: to kind of shed a light on.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: You just kind of spawned an idea in my brain.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: You were talking about access, and there's a whole approach
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: of what your row's doing and doing things differently, and
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  Speaker 2: you've exceeded the performance target of ninety five percent on
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: time in full delivery, which is notable in the whole
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  Speaker 2: ecosystem of drug access.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: That's pretty big, So talk to us a little bit
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  Speaker 3: about that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's a good number, but it's also a
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: required number. Many people might know that. So when we
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: think about there's really a triangle of criteria that ultimately companies,
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: especially on the generic side, get judged in as we
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: put product into the system. So that's really starting into
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: our direct relationship to selling into our distributors and wholesalers.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: And there's three things that we could judge on price,
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: which wouldn't surprise anybody. It's probably the biggest one. Everybody's
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: looking at how we are supplying the product that they
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: the best price that it can be out there in
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: the marketplace, and that's influenced by number of competitors and
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: how many people are supplying or number of manufacturers. All
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: have different things that influence that price site. But the
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: second two and the next one is what we call
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: continuity supply. A lot of our agreements are set up
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: that we have to be held accountable to a certain
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: performance level, and those performance levels are above ninety five
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: percent or there actually can be penalties to us as
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: a manufacturer. So the system forces us to a certain
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: extent to be at that kind of performance level. We
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: would want to anyways inherently, but do it. And then
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  Speaker 4: the third one is is service levels, and that means
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: all different aspects of delivery a product on time, because
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: ultimately it kind of rolls downhill, right if we don't
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: deliver to our wholesales or servers on time and their
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: patients are their customers that say a pharmacy is calling
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: into order product and they don't have it, They're going
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: to go somewhere else. So when you think about from
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: a pure business standpoint, that ability for those wholesales distributors
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: to be able to deliver product to their customers on
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: demand is essential to their business. So you have to
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: kind of look at the different components and pieces as
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: you go down the supply chain and understand how they
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: work together. And then it kind of resonates why we
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: set these very aggressive and high level of performance metrics
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: or targets. It's not easy because think about our supply
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: chain in the case of your raw or USA or
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: our branded company, your sister company in the US. Our
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: our company manufactures all our products and the and we
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: manufacture them in Europe. So some of the products are
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: shipped by air, summer ship by sea, or the ship
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: by sea. You have to anticipate longer lead times to
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: get products over. You've got weather, you've got so you
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: know you.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Have to pirates.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: Pirates, Yes, pirates is a true thing. So we actually, uh,
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: even after we had one instance uh I think it
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: was last year, another year before maybe where our product
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: had been received into into the US and was being
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: transported from port to our three p L and that
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: truck that our product was on was sitting outside the facility,
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: which is all obviously locked and gated, waiting for their
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: turn to come in, and somebody try to break in
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: the back of trush and still proc off the back.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: So when you think about it, there is a lot
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: a lot of effort and people to ensure that product
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: can get from A to Z or from manufacture to patient,
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: and there's a lot of challenges both internally as well
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: as externally that impact that. So we're very proud of that,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: and I'm very proud to be part of a company
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: that has made that a priority in terms of the
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: quality of their manufacturing and equality of their supply chain.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: And we have a great colleague in our US business,
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Bill Punia. He's the VP of our supply chain and.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: On the show, Bill shout out to you.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: But yeah, Bill's an amazing guy. He's UH. He's really
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: helped lead the organization both locally and globally UH to
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: improve on top of the high quality of performance we
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: were already delivering. So it's essential. So you know, if
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: we're in a situation where there's a need for product,
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: then there's not enough product. We're doing our best to
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  Speaker 4: make sure we can get as much of that product
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: to the people and to our customers and ultimately patient
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: when they need it.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: All right, So, Scott Batty is the CEO of Framework
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: LTC right out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That's their headquarters down
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: and actually in downtown. They're the manufacturers of long term
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: care pharmacy software. That's all they focus on. One and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: he and I were talking. We actually went down and
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: did a recording in his headquarters, which is freaking cool.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And one of the things that he was talking about
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: is we cannot scale as an organization. We cannot be
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: successful as an organization if we aren't handpicking and fortifying
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: and strengthening our partnerships. And you guys have a special
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: partnership that I wanted you to kind of describe to
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: our listeners why it's important. And that's with ever Sauna.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know. Ever Sauna is a company. We call
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: them either a three PL or four PL. They are
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: a partnered at basically warehouses and helps them distribute our product.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: That's the three PL side. The three PL third party
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: logistics is what it's refers to. The four pls where
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: many of those type of organizations are adding other services
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: around that. It could be financial management, receiving payments, doing accounts,
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: receivable accounts, payable pharmacal vigilance, different resources that a company
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: might need. And you know, not all companies are the same,
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: Not all companies are large enough to have all that
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: resource internally, and we outsource a lot of that. And
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: they've been our partner since day one. And it's not
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: that we haven't had our ups and downs a little bit,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: because we always do, like any relationship, but they have
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: continued to provide the effort and the service and the
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: focus to allow us to make sure that we perform
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: at those levels that we've been talking about. You know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: when we have to have service levels, so on time shipping.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: You know, some customers need their scheduling to receive a truck.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Some shipments are partial trucks on our whole trucks. I'm
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: not going to go into all the language of shipping
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: and logistics, but but at the end of the day,
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: they become probably as essentially as important of anything that
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: we do, because at the end of the day, we
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: can do all the marketing, we could do all the
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: regulatory We can do all the legal, we could do
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: all the manufacturing, but the proc't get to where it
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: needs to get to. Then it breaks down the value proposition.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: So you know, having something like a partner in Aversana,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: which we are again grateful for. And there's there's you know,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: four or five large three pls out there, and there's
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: some smaller ones. Many of the companies in our industry
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: do not manage that anymore. So when you know, one
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: of the things I might surprise a lot of people,
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: whether it's a company you know, probably the big companies
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: like Merk or other, we don't. We don't warehouse all
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: our product, we don't manage all our shipping. Most of
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: that is an outsource resource, I would think, primarily from
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: most companies in the industry, brand orginary, and so they
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: become a very important part of that value chain.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: So reliability kind of plays in this obviously. And you
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: always have to go back to metrics, go back to reports,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: go back to studies that you are understanding how you're
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: being perceived as an organization of what you can be
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: doing better based on the data or based on the collection.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: There was a survey twenty twenty four survey in the
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: American Journal of Managed Care that showed the average time
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: pharmacy staff spent managing drug shortages more than doubled from
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: ten point five hours a week in twenty nineteen to
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: twenty four point two hours per week in twenty twenty four.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: That is crazy. Those are crazy numbers.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: You know, like anything, when you look at the entire
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: ecosystem of an industry, you know, we have ebbs and flows,
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: good and bad. And one of the challenges that we
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: do have now is, you know, a significant amount, over
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: ninety percent of all drugs that are consumed by patients
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: in the US are generic. So we've seen, you know,
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: a very unique dynamic that that's grown over the last
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: three decades. And as a result of that and the
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: result of the system that we operate in, again good
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: and bad, we've seen that a lot of companies are
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: struggling to make enough profit to justify the manufacturing of drugs.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: We have over three hundred generic companies servicing the industry.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: So one one could argue is that we've we've kind
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: of overshot our skis a little bit. You know, we
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: don't need there's products out there that might have fifteen
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: or sixteen suppliers of the same drug, well maybe five
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: would be good. So I think there's a lot of
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: things that are going to evolve over time. I think
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: we're going to see certain thresholds and in terms of
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: quality and manufacturing that will I think smooth out the
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: number of manufacturers. But you know, the premise is the
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: more suppliers, the lower the price. And you know, if
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: it if it if it forces us into a position
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: where then drugs or critical drugs are are being made anymore,
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: then that creates a problem. So that's that's something that
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: is a not any one company can solve. But I
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: think it's something that over time, as we continue to
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: challenge the way we deliver healthcare, we'll make some improvements
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: in that area and then hopefully we'll we'll see that
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: that come down. But it's definitely something that in the
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: last you know, five to six years, has become a
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: major problem and probably one of the reasons why we
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: see some of the things that are happening in the government.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: We want to make sure that we do have stockpile
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: certain products and things like that. You know, another thing
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: that people probably don't fully appreciate and understand is that
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: you know when you get your prescription, there's always a
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: date in which you're supposed to dispose of that product. Right.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: Because we develop drugs, we do stability testing and other
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: things like that so that we ensure that the quality
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: of the product stays intact over a period of time,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: and we refer to as shelf life, So when we
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: have a product approved that we'll get an assigned shelf
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: like mostly most products will be eighteen to twenty four months.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: Sometimes they can go up to thirty six months, but
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: that's based on companies continue to provide data that supportive
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: of getting an adjustment of that shelf life. But if
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: you think about it, let's take a drug that has
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: twenty four months. That shelf life starts with manufacturing and
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: then you have distribution a wholesale, you might lose four
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: or five months just getting the product for me to
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: be on the pharmacy's shelf and then on the back end.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: In our industry, the product becomes short dated traditionally at
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: twelve months. That means that the system can reject those
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: drugs and bring it back. So if you have a
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: product that you as a manufacturer can only sell for
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: six months before technically it could become short dated. Now,
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: a lot of our wholesales distributors, depending on the product,
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: will take product that's shorter in that based on if
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: it's a quick turnaround product. So there's very building that
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: I don't want to say it's you know, all or nothing,
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: but you know, there's there is business guidelines that kind
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: of control the drugs. So when we think about supply,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: our job is to make sure that we get you know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: product that has got good shelf life that we know
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: is getting to the pharmacy at the right time that
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: they can do it. Because the more that we can
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: stay within these windows, it creates more efficiency in the system,
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: right because otherwise you got product returns and different things
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: like that. So and that's costly to not only manufacturer,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: it's costly to the other the partners in the system.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: So most definitely there's a member of the IBSA team
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: with eighteen different entities, you know, all kind of rolling
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: data up into the mothership where they start thinking, how
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: can we become more resilient to drug supply chain issues
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: and then what can we do about to control our
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: own destiny. There's aspects of drug supply that you're never
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: going to be able to control because it's outside of
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: your control. But Ibbs and you and your raw pharma,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: now you have elements of this system and this machine
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: where you do have an opportunity to make adjustments in
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: order to Yeah, we.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: Have a full supply chain team in corporate and we
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: have a supply chain team, as we said, led by
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Bill Punia, and you know they all they do every
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: day is to ensure the integrity of that supply chain.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: And think about it. Let's say you have a product
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: that has a drug device and I'm not speaking to
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: any of our products per se, but has a component
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: that you have to purchase, and all of a sudden,
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: that supplier says, well, it takes me six six months
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: now to give it to you, not three. Well, now
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: you're factoring that into all the math and timing to
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: make sure that you have that inventory. So when you
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: do schedule MANI factioning you have and that manufacturing can
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: be supplying against the sales forecasts or demand forecast that
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: we provide. So there's you know, there's a tremendous amount
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: of complexity, and I really have a high degree of
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: respect for all our individuals that really work in the
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: level of technical knowledge and expertise you have to manufacture
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: and deliver within the supply chain.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: So when I look ahead, I know things are in
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: If you the pharmacy industry is like plague tectonics right now,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: things are really changing, the way that the prescriptions are
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: being paid for, the way pharmacists are going to get paid,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: the way that the rebate system is going to change,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: even the governing laws at the federal level with PBM reform,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: so everything is it's this is an environment. It's almost
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: like we have a micro economic system within pharma as
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: a beast of itself within the markets because it just
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: ebb and flows and everything that happens. Absolutely to talk
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to about expansion and that in the future of what
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: you're planning to do. And I'm really excited about the
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: portfolio expansion too, but talk to our listeners about that.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, supply chain is critical to what we
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: would call is portfolio development. So you know, any good
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: pharmaceutical organization, brand or generic, you know, the center pillar
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: of our success of the business to deliver drug to
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: patients is how we build our portfolio. And so our
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: portfolio it can be developed internally or externally, but the
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: supply chain is critical to making all that happen. And
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: when you have a product launch, especially in generics, you
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: could be competing with other generics. At the same time,
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: you might have a certain lead time. So if if
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: you get a product to prove but the supply chain
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: is not ready to deliver as soon as it can,
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: then there's value lost, not only from a pure business perspective,
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: but ultimately to the patient. So they supply chain really
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: is not just about putting a product in a box
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: and getting it for me to be They're actually highly
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: critical to the overall commercial strategy of any organization to
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: ensure that we maximize the opportunity. And at the end
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: of the day, let's be let's be real. I mean,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: we are for profit businesses because if we don't have profit,
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: we can't reinvest. If we don't have profit, there's not
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: new drugs being developed or allocations being made to improve
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: manufacturing facilities, whatever it might be. So you know, we
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: have to find that way, and supply chain is just
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: so much bigger, you know. I think at the end
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: of the day most people can appreciate this and realize
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: is that in our industry there is just a huge
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: amount of interdependencies and everything. And what I always talk
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: to my team about in our organization is that everyone
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: in the organization is commercial. And what I mean by
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: that is, you know, our job is to make our
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: products commercially available. So whether you're regulatory or finance, or legal,
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: or supply chain or in commercial roles like sales and marketing,
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: other we're all there to try to identify and work
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: together in a way like a supply chain channel, work
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: in an efficient supply process that will allow us to
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: do it in a way that we can be profitable,
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: that we can deliver product on time, that it's oft
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: of the highest quality. So if we don't do those
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: there's so many parts to this that if one or
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: two break down, it might not seem important, but they
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: add up quickly. So you know, the most important thing
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: that people should understand is that there is a tremendous
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: amount of people that work in the pharmaceutical industry and
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: one of the key functional areas is supply chain. And
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: these people are dedicated every day to find ways to
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: be business efficient because that's what good businesses do. But
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: they find a way to make sure that patients are
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: served effectively, just as the person that might be in
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: the forefront and the marketing role or something like that.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: So every one of these individuals are dedicated to do that.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Hey, if you want to link up with Steven, go
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: out to LinkedIn, request a connection with him, startup conversation
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: with him, if you have ideas for future podcasts. Before
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: we wrap up, Steven, I would like to present you
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: with a gift, really thank you. Healing the Sick Care
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: System by my friend Gilbash who I worked under Gill's
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: team for Finn Partners as their podcast conduit. It was
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: an amazing experience with Finn Partners, which is one of
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: the largest public relation firms that really focus on health.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: They have seventeen office throughout the world. And he reminds
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: me of the Yoda of public relations and and of communications,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: and he comes at it from such a heart.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: He's driving everything.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: He's using all of his experiences and all of his
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: knowledge about communication, and but he's not He always wants
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: to empower other people. And he wrote this book. It's
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: called Healing. I have to get a close up with this,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: but it's it's Healing the Healing the Sick Care System.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: And this has been an amazing book to see kind
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: of start getting a lot of press, and it's a
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: philosophy of what our healthcare systemsh could be.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: But I just want to.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much. You know, look at I'm.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Going to review that book with him. He's actually going
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: to come on the show and we're gonna well that's.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: A fantastic Maybe I'll be in the audience listening.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: No, we're gonna get one with you.
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: Oh okay, good. I could be your co host on
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: that and do that. All right, Well, listen, you know,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: it's great to be around people like yourself, and I
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: look forward to reading the book by Gil. We need
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: more people like that. Again, I'm not trying in any
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: way to be negative. I want what we're doing in
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: this process of the podcast is to be actually very positive.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: And there could be a lot of opportunities for people
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: to point fingers or do different things. But the fact
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: is that if there's any small legacy I could give
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: is that I want I want to always be known
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: that as a leader of a company, that I will
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: leave the company in a way that it should be
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: led and do the things that a good company will
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: do in terms of being successful on a business side
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: of things. But Equally, I want to be part of
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: the people with big hearts that continuing to try to
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: figure out how we can do things differently, do things
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: better and have a real impact on improving the outcome
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: of health care. And there's a lot of people out there.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: We just need to kind of keep assembling to get together.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: And I think we will continue to create a momentum
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: where you know, a pharmacist, a community pharmacist that's struggling
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: to pay operational costs because reimbursements are challenging, to a
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: patient that's struggling to get the medication. We will continue
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: to find the best ways to do it to everything
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: in the system up to and back through how we
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: deliver healthcare, through our providers, our healthcare system, networks, all
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: those kinds of things. If we can do that, I
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: think we just keep pecking at it. I mean, it's
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: not gonna be perfect, it's not gonna be easy, but that's
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: what that's the legacy that we hope that RAL will
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: be a part of, That will be a part of
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: that our team will be a part of in many people,
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: and this platform is something that we will continue to
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: push our to achieve some of those some of those goals.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Well, I want to thank you Stephen for being part
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: of this. I want to thank you for supporting the
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Pharmacy Podcast Network and bringing so much into our network,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: from the ideas that you've helped to generate, relationships that
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: you've helped me to foster, and bring good content to
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: the network.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: So appreciate you.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: It's a pleasure. Partnership school can do really good things.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: So let's keep partnering.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, subscribe on all of the podcast platforms. Leave us
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: a comment, let us know what content we're not covering.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Let's dig into it together. But thanks for listening to
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: the Pharmacy Podcast Network.