Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1373953
42 Pharmaceutical Technology BIOLOGICS AND STERILE DRUG MANUFACTURING EBOOK 2021 P h a r mTe c h . c o m Real-time data logger technology was designed to measure various scenarios that would require escalation, like products being delayed, pallets being split up or arriving at the wrong location, a potential security issue, or issues at borders. Our 24/7 Monitor and Response Service (MARS) team was also available in the background to facilitate corrective action if escalations occurred. In tan- dem, Controlant worked extensively with stake- holders and designated sites to create an onsite monitoring control tower, providing centralized services to facilitate responsiveness and corrective action, per the vaccine manufacturer's instructions and according to specific business rules and regu- lations. Multiple parties involved with the distribu- tion and onsite process are provided with pertinent information and alerts, as they happen, so that the vaccines can be protected, helping to ensure pub- lic safety, mitigate financial losses, and expedite vaccine administration. Automation [is] another key component of suc- cessful vaccine distribution and delivery. The au- tomated services and processes Controlant put into place can apply to other scenarios moving forward to positively impact the pharmaceutical industry, [such as] automatic triggering of events according to predefined business rules set by the customer. For example, orders are entered into the ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, and a shipment is created to the designated customer and site. When a shipment arrives, a detailed report is automatically created and emailed to designated onsite stakeholders, including the internal qual- ity team, for sign off. Recipients know automati- cally if the vaccine, medicines, and other pharma products should be placed on hold pending further review or if it may be administered to patients. Under normal circumstances, the new phar- maceutical distribution models currently in place would have taken years to accomplish, rather than only a few months. This model required a new depth of collaboration, alignment, processes, and data sharing across multiple internal and external stakeholders—such as carriers, manufacturers, governments, health systems, and others—inte- grating multiple control towers and implementing technology-enabling responsiveness on a level never witnessed previously. In the coming months, we will see more lessons learned from the distribution. Supply-chain trends PharmTech: How do you envision the new technol- ogies and lessons learned during the pandemic being used in the future? Herjolfsson (Controlant): Controlant's view is that real-time visibility and monitoring has made pre- vious, retrospective processes and minimal data logging irrelevant. We can answer, 'What is hap- pening right now?' so parties can act on critical information, fast. Moving forward, supply chain stakeholders can leverage gathered business in- telligence and data to predictively answer, 'What will happen?' [These] data will enable businesses to execute planning in an entirely new way. For "There are multiple hand-off points along the supply chain, and each one poses risks of temperature deviations or other incidents that can compromise product quality." —Gisli Herjolfssonn, Controlant Operations