How pharmaceutical companies and CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers collaborate is a key factor in being able to meet goals for cost reduction, cost avoidance, and value creation. How does your company stand?

A myriad of issues can impede as well as facilitate supplier relations. Understanding the pitfalls as well as the solutions is key for meeting desired business goals. DCAT Sharp Sourcing, being held, Tuesday, July 12, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, provides key insight from leading pharmaceutical industry executives on what works and what doesn’t.

Developed by DCAT’s Supply Management Committee and the Education Committee’s Sharp Sourcing Supplier Program Task Force, Sharp Sourcing will feature specialized education forums for buyers and suppliers and joint sessions on supply chain optimization/CMO integration, right-first time metrics, and procurement analytics and supply risk management. The event will also feature a keynote address on how to foster innovation with your suppliers for a competitive advantage by award-winning entrepreneur and star of ABC’s Shark Tank Daymond John.

Of particular value are the Buyers’ and Suppliers’ Forums, specialized educational sessions that provide case studies and practical insight from leading pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. The Buyers’ Forum is designed specifically for professionals involved in sourcing, procurement, supply management, and external manufacturing. It will feature three topics with roundtable discussions: Procurement’s influence in specification management; sustainable procurement; and supplier metrics: going beyond scorecards with executives from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, and Eli Lilly and Company providing insight.

In the Suppliers’ Forum, executives from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Pfizer, PwC, and others will provide customer-centric perspectives for CDMOs, CMOs and suppliers on different aspects of supplier relationship management. Key topics to be addressed include: (1) managing supplier consolidation: (2) managing an integrated supply chain and network integration; (3) strategic partnerships/collaboration, including supplier innovation; (4) inter-supply cooperation/management with raw material suppliers, CDMOs, CMOs; and (5) managing working capital requirements (i.e., payment terms, inventory holding, and other supply related issues).

In the joint afternoon session, buyer and suppliers come together for presentations of common interest. J&J’s Janssen will kick off the joint afternoon session with a presentation on supply chain optimization and CMO integration that will provide insights on how to build collaborative external partnerships and optimize active pharmaceutical ingredient supply networks. A panel of leading industry experts, including executives from Pfizer and Teva, then discuss how pharmaceutical companies and suppliers can partner and achieve operational excellence and meet desired metrics, such as right-first time, in the manufacture of drug substances and drug products. In the final presentation, Merck & Co. will discuss how to use value-based metrics to more effectively assess and mitigate supply risk.

Information on Sharp Sourcing, including how to register, may be found here.