In profile: Dr Falko Riechert, Global Head of Supply Chain, HRA Pharma

Efficient and effective supply chain management is crucial in the pharmaceutical industry.

“Let’s pick a product from our rare disease business as an example,” Falko Riechert said. “Life could be at risk if the supply chain does not deliver. That’s a big statement.”

COLD CHAIN LOGISTICS

All of HRA Pharma’s products need to be transported within specific temperature ranges. “Typically the problem is in both directions,” Riechert said. “If you’re talking Latin American or Middle East markets as examples, extra precautions need to be taken for the products not to get too hot. But if you’re talking Scandinavian countries during wintertime, you need to make sure they’re not getting too cold.”

Typically, HRA Pharma’s products are transported within comparable uncritical temperature ranges between two to -25 or 30 degrees. “We are not talking about very stringent cold chain logistics in our case,” Riechert said.

VACCINE DELIVERY CHALLENGE

The global delivery programme for the COVID-19 vaccinations will be a hugely complicated logistical operation. With his knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry, Riechert foresees several delivery challenges for the various vaccine candidates.

“All of them need cold chain transportation. Some of them only require moderate -20 degrees, while others you may have heard of require -60 degrees. That’s not standard logistics yet and can be challenging.”

Riechert said it is vital to find the right partners who can provide the right service.

“The requirement is it needs to be an end-to-end cold chain delivery, from the production plant until shortly before it is injected into the patient. You need to be able to demonstrate from end to end that the required transportation conditions were adhered to, no matter if they are comparably stringent or not. Just assuming or hoping that everything will be fine is not an option – strong monitoring and tracking are required.”

At -60 degrees, Riechert admits that the technical challenge is high, especially for remote areas and less developed countries, but the need to demonstrate that temperature and transportation conditions are adhered will be paramount.

HEALTHCARE INNOVATORS

Founded in 1996, HRA Pharma was created to offer therapeutic solutions to medical needs that were not served by large pharmaceutical groups at the time. Pioneers in women’s healthcare, HRA has become the European leader in emergency hormonal contraception.

Having spent a decade in strategy consulting, Falko Riechert joined HRA Pharma two years ago, initially as a consultant.

“When doing the project, I liked the company, the culture and the people,” he said. Clearly, the company was pleased with his results too, as six months later he was appointed its Global Head of Supply Chain and Manufacturing.

Riechert is responsible for all the supply chain and artwork aspects for the company’s women’s health business, as well as its Compeed brand, which provides blister plasters, and Mederma, a skincare brand, which is well known in the US. The company also has a separate affiliate for its rare disease drugs business.

BREXIT AND BEYOND

Riechert reports to Richard Westcott, HRA Pharma’s Chief Supply Chain & Facilities Officer. When asked how he thinks the end of the Brexit transition period will affect the UK-EU trade in pharmaceuticals, Westcott believes the outcome of the recent US presidential election will have a bearing on the final deal.

He said: “I think everybody’s hoping that the change from the Trump to the Biden administration is going to force through a soft Brexit, what with the President-elect’s comments already on the Good Friday agreement and the free trade and movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. So I think we’re all hoping for that.”

Whatever happens, Westcott believes that it will have a significant impact on the pharmaceutical industry and imports into and exports out of the UK.

The HRA business model means it does not have its own manufacturing facilities, but contracts them out to manufacturers based in Continental Europe. “Quite clearly whether it’s a hard or a soft Brexit, there’s going to be changes to the way Customs document on departure or arrival,” Westcott said.

The business is very mindful than any time increased documentation is put in place, ie Customs documentation and control, it can create a backlog. In order to mitigate the risk of supply interruptions in the UK, it is taking the precaution of putting considerable amounts of safety stock in place, up to six months’ demand on women’s health products, prior to the end of the year.

HRA has also signed up for the UK Government’s increased freight capacity initiative for vital medical supplies and other critical goods where contracts with four ferry operators have been agreed using the government’s Freight Capacity Framework. This provides additional capacity of over 3,000 HGVs per week, for six months after the end of the transition period, and focuses on routes serving nine ports including eight ports in areas less likely to experience disruption such as Felixstowe, Harwich, Hull, Newhaven, Poole, Portsmouth, Teesport and Tilbury.

UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK AHEAD

Riechert said that while the company is trying to anticipate the shape of the post-Brexit trading environment as much as possible, there is still a lack of clarity and guidance. The business is particularly wary of potential short-term complications, such as long queues to clear products through UK Customs, but also the mid-term situation around the pharmaceutical regulatory landscape is not fully clarified. “The harder the Brexit, the more unpredictable the situation will be,” he said.

However, HRA Pharma believes that its safety stock will protect it from the worst of the coming storm. Westcott said: “We are confident that the six-month buffer stock will be in place – a lot of it is already there.”

“For HRA it will be pretty smooth,” Riechert agreed. “We’ve anticipated and built a decent safety stock already, but the overall political, regulatory and supply situation will be interesting in the first few months – we will see very soon.”

*https://www.hra-pharma.com/

Published On: 26/11/2020 16:00:00

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