Exploring sustainability in the pharmaceutical supply chain: results from some Italian case studies

Achieving sustainability is a main goal for the pharmaceutical and life science industries. However, the pharmaceutical supply chain faces several criticalities, which make sustainability particularly challenging in this field. For instance, the development and production of drugs consumes large quantities of natural resources. Also, the distribution of drugs is particularly complex to be managed, because of the very large number of items handled and of the need to have the punctual and complete control of inventories and transports. At the same time, pharmaceutical products have a “social” function, as they affect the health of individuals and aim at improving the quality and longevity of life; therefore, their distribution should be particularly efficient. As a further point, to survive, pharmaceutical companies should be able to develop, manufacture and sell innovative medicines, thus gaining leadership positions on the market. In this paper, we explore which supply chain sustainability practices pharmaceutical companies adopt and how, with respect to the Italian scenario. A questionnaire was developed to investigate this topic and used as a guideline to carry out explorative case studies, involving some companies in the pharmaceutical industry. The final aim of the paper is to identify a framework for sustainability in this field, which could be used by pharmaceutical companies as a benchmark to improve their sustainability performance. Preliminary results suggest interesting insights as regards the sustainability practices used at company and supply chain level.