The Ongoing Impact of COVID-19 on the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

There is zero doubt that the COVID-19 crisis has put a serious strain on supply chains all over the world. From groceries to toys, there is hardly a single sector that has not found it incredibly difficult to achieve the, previously quite simple, task of moving products from one place to another.

However, an industry that has arguably had more to deal with than others can be found in pharmaceuticals. Not only has this industry had to deal with all the same supply chain issues others have but has had to do so in an environment where its products have never been so sorely needed.

Now the worst of the pandemic has hopefully passed, it would be nice to think things could return to normality, but sadly that is not quite the case yet.

An Economic Disaster Lurks

Recent research carried out by The Wall Street Journal surveyed 67 top economists who have indicated that supply chain hurdles, labour shortages, and bottlenecks brought about by the two-year pandemic have the potential to cause even more global economic damage than COVID-19 itself.

This has caused those same economists to warn that this will be the longest period of sustained inflation over five percent in over two decades.

This sustained inflation is driving up prices and reducing the spending power of consumers and organisations – both of which the pharmaceutical industry relies on. This combined with supply falling short of demand is causing severe concern regarding future economic growth, with supply chain disruptions likely to continue to negatively impact growth for at least the next 12-18 months.

A Pernicious Issue

Of the 67 economists surveyed, nearly half [45%] believe we are unlikely to see these supply chain bottlenecks eased until the end of 2022.

As the dangers of the virus itself begin to recede, the continuing impact of the pandemic will be seen in labour shortages and supply chain disruptions. People’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis are going to have far-reaching impacts which will take a significant amount of time to repair – everything is not just going to snap back into place once the downgrade from pandemic to endemic status is enacted.

“Uncomfortably high inflation will grip the economy well into 2022, as constrained supply chains keep upward pressure on prices and, increasingly, curb output, according to economists surveyed this month by The Wall Street Journal,” reports Gwynn Guilford and Anthony DeBarros for The Wall Street Journal. “The economists’ inflation projections are up dramatically from July, while short-term growth outlooks are lower.”

Final Thoughts

It’s clear COVID-19 is going to continue to cause significant negative impacts to supply chains for the near future and the resultant economic damage is going to harm the ability of organisations and individuals around the world to recover from the pandemic.

The onus must then fall to everyone working in supply chain-related businesses to focus on addressing the issues of bottlenecks, supply chain hurdles, labour shortages, etc., and get essential products flowing smoothly around the world once again.

The world is going to struggle to heal economically until these challenges are properly addressed.