It has always been a constant for me that all those who I have met working in medicines supply have a key aim, to do their very best to get medicines to patients. The people in our sector are motivated by this and know what the end game is.
That’s whether you are on the warehouse floor, or in the boardroom. In fact, sometimes over the winter period these are the same people! As a trade association leader this is a critical strength when dealing with policymakers, stakeholders and the NHS; the latter is everyone’s priority and largest customer.
Issues
The other constant has been that, over many years, there are always many varied issues affecting our sector - either ones that continually evolve or ones that come out of the blue! Covid comes to mind, or a member company’s major IT failure, for example.
But challenges can also be planned and anticipated, and our sector then has to adapt and respond. This includes legislation and policy implementation such as the EU’s Falsified Medicines’ Directive, or the Northern Ireland Protocol, or business decisions by the manufacturing sector, such as the introduction of reduced wholesaler arrangements more than 15 years ago.
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I have always enjoyed this ever-changing landscape, either sudden critical, immediate challenges or more considered, but permanent shifts. I have also grown to understand and respect that a medicines wholesale business, in order to be successful, has to be flexible and pragmatic.
There is a ‘can-do’ culture which I admire and aligns with my own personal approach. This has created inherent resilience in our part of the supply chain, enhanced by the fact that medicines wholesalers have the best view up, down and across the whole medicines supply chain. It’s second to none.
Not focused on one locality, or even one country, or one range of products or even one type of customer. This gives the HDA its strength of purpose. Our businesses might not have the financial heft or proprietary powers of some global players, but come a crisis, and when it comes to keeping public healthcare safe, guess who is called for pretty quickly?
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Pharmaceutical wholesalers can manage risk, they do this every day across all four countries of the UK. Ignoring geographies, they operate a universal service from islands to highlands, from villages to city centres, delivering to hospitals, community pharmacies, GP surgeries and dispensaries, prisons, cruise ships and many health clinics.
I believe that this public health value has finally been understood from the Covid and Brexit years. But memories can be short, so please let us not slip back to an earlier time solely based on lobbying power.
A trade association must navigate through all these planned and unforeseen issues as they come along. But there is one factor, above all, that I have always believed has been key to being able to do this.
Relationships
I have always valued relationships with other stakeholders as key to being able to respond to and address challenges. Across Europe, the UK’s supply chain relationships are the envy of many.
In the UK, the representative trade associations have often come together to tackle many challenges. In fact, it’s been like this ever since 2010 when the then health secretary Andy Burnham MP brought all the medicines supply chain trade associations together to develop a government guidance document.
Without the NHS – one customer for all of us – this might not have been possible, but since then this group of trade associations has been repeatedly together, alongside officials and regulators, over the last 15 years and provides great resilience and strength. The current Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Industry Advisory Board is the successor to this founding group.
Community Pharmacy
A key part of future supply chain resilience, I believe, depends on a vibrant and financially healthy community pharmacy sector. This is clearly severely challenged right now and our own members’ businesses and those of some suppliers are suffering directly.
We need a strong community pharmacy sector to create the conditions for better patient services and to support one of the three key ‘shifts’ advocated by this government. The HDA and its members will be supporting the community pharmacy sector as it lobbies for a better contract.
But my one plea is: please do this with one voice. Division gets us nowhere.
Future
Perhaps now, more than ever, the HDA needs to advocate for what works well. In my view, this is because the current model – which has proven to be cost effective, patient-centric and resilient – is being threatened by uncertainty and severe economic pressures and we must not become the problem.
We are critical infrastructure. The EU has formally recognised our sector as such. Maybe we can be classified in a similar way?
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Let us build on our key worker status to evolve a more favourable business environment for these businesses dependant largely on NHS income. This is what we mean by needing to invest in supply chain resilience.
I really hope that all involved in medicines supply keep communicating and do this in a collaborative way. If this is achieved, results will follow I believe.
Personally, I am really looking forward to an active retirement that should include some travel, volunteering, hiking, running, family history research, learning ProLogic and maybe making some music. Another chapter hopefully!
Martin Sawer spent 21 years as the Healthcare Distribution Association UK’s (HDA UK) executive director, formerly known as the British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (BAPW). Sawer retired last week.
