Healthcare executives worldwide willing to make strategic investments, UPS says

Executives in the healthcare industry across the globe plan investments in new technologies andgo-to-market models to drive business and logistics transformations in order to meet evolving

The strategic supply chain investments are mainly driven by changing regulatory environments,new customer demands around the globe as well as challenges around product security andincreasingly complex products, UPS explained.

The results of the sixth annual UPS “Pain in the (Supply) Chain” healthcare survey showed that84% of global healthcare executives surveyed will invest in new technologies over the next fiveyears while 78% want to enter new global markets. Some 70% plan to implement new distributionchannels such as going directly to providers, retailers and even end-patients. In addition, 59% arewilling to rely more on third-party logistics partners.

UPS stressed that technology investments reflect growing concerns over product protectionincluding the security of high-value shipments and product spoilage. Therefore, the majority of theexecutives surveyed aim to invest over the next three to five years in systems that supporte-pedigree/ serialisation, temperature-sensitive and product security solutions.

It is the first time since the launch of the survey in 2008 that product security surpassed costmanagement as the second supply chain concern with 53% of executives citing it as a top issue. Thebiggest challenge is counterfeit sophistication named by 48% of the executives as the top concernwith product security, followed by supply chain visibility (40%).

Concerns over the global economy and healthcare business continue despite the investment planswith 50% of the executives in the USA still feeling the impacts of the economic downturn and 60%reporting continued impacts. Asian executives express the most optimism on the economy with only31% reporting an impact.

From a future perspective, increasing regulations have also been cited as the top concern by 48%of the respondents, closely followed by concerns over healthcare reform and legislation (46%) andintellectual property protection (40%). In Asia, top concerns are increasing competition (51%) andpatent expirations (41%).

In Western Europe, the economic downturn continues to be the top concern, with nearly half inthe respondents reporting continued impacts for their companies, which is significantly higher thanin 2012.

“Healthcare companies are balancing a number of priorities related to capturing business growthopportunities in new markets, protecting increasingly sophisticated and high-value products andnavigating a complex regulatory environment worldwide,” Bill Hook, vice president, global strategy,UPS Healthcare Logistics, said.

The UPS Pain in the (Supply) Chain survey is a blind, in-depth phone survey conducted by TNS onbehalf of UPS in February-April 2013 interviewing approximately 441 healthcare executives in theUSA and Canada, Western Europe, Asia and Latin America. Qualified respondents were senior-leveldecision-makers responsible for supply chain and logistics in the pharmaceutical, medical deviceand biotech industries.