Enabling and helping our partners ensure that our medicines are available where needed

The pandemic and ensuing lockdowns around the world have not only disrupted individual lives, but also the global supply chain machinery across industries. This is a critical issue when it comes to pharma, because our partners — from doctors and healthcare providers, to hospitals, pharmacists and distributors — rely on us to get medicines to patients whenever, wherever needed. Naturally, our teams around the world have had to collaborate and innovate to make sure our partners don’t run out of medicines.

Last year, when governments began grounding flights, the launch of an important generic drug in Europe ran into the danger of getting significantly delayed. But failure was not an option, people’s lives depend on us. Working remotely from home, a colleague began to place calls around the world — about 50 to 80 potential partners — thanks to Google. He needed to connect with someone, anyone, who was offering shipment services at the time. But new partnerships take time, so simultaneously, our teams began to revisit flight possibilities with existing partners.  

Meanwhile, our import location airport at Malta was shut down. This was a setback that needed a new set of solutions immediately. The supply chain team got together with quality and logistics to find ways to address the situation — working late nights, through weekends, without breaks. A new import site had to be found, and there had to be infrastructure in place to manage the importation and sampling processes.  

Finally, there was a solution. A roundabout one, yes, but effective and perfectly suited to the timetable. Batches of our drugs were flown to Germany, transported by road to Italy then ferried across to Malta. The Maltese expedited all processes necessary to greenlight the batches. Trucks waited at country borders across the continent to deliver on time, and warehouses were at the ready to sample the drugs as soon as they arrived – all this to make sure the medicine was available on the day we said it will be.