Beil’s address, entitled 'The Globalisation of the Supply Chain and its Inherent Risks”, stressed that drug firms should think of raw materials suppliers as partners in the manufacturing process rather than simply as vendors.
His speech coincided with the launch of SAFC’s new Vendor Audit Services (VAS) offering, which is designed to help pharma industry clients enhance the traceability of raw materials used in drug production.
The VAS offering extends SAFC’s in-house auditing programme to provide pharma and biotech firms with dedicated inspection teams that have regulatory compliance experience across a wide range of geographical regions, including key markets like China and India.
The new service is intended to help drug firms ensure that the quality and processing systems used by global suppliers meet with internationally recognised quality standards.