In August 2025, senior European pharma executives gathered in Basel for the inaugural External Manufacturing Leaders think tank.
Here is a short summary of takeaways shared by executives managing some of the world’s most complex pharmaceutical supply chains at a time of unprecedented upheaval.
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1. The End of Global Optimisation
The era of globalised, cost-optimised supply chains has ended. Leading
companies are consciously trading efficiency for resilience, implementing “region-for-region” strategies that build in redundancy.
The industry must accept the higher costs of multi-sourcing key products in exchange for supply security. As one executive noted: “Resilience doesn’t come for free.”
2. From Transactional to Strategic Partnerships
To navigate these times, pharma companies should seek to simplify and consolidate supplier relationships where possible, moving from managing numerous transactional CDMOs to developing deep partnerships with fewer strategic suppliers.
This evolution requires new organisational capabilities, and differentiated relationship management approaches that treat strategic partners as extensions of internal capabilities.
3. Political Timelines vs. Manufacturing Reality
The fundamental mismatch between political cycles (2-4 years) and pharmaceutical manufacturing timelines (4-8 years for supplier changes) is creating strategic paralysis.
The challenge is to how maintain long-term perspectives while building optionality to respond to policy changes as they happen.
4. Collective Action Opportunities
Significant opportunities exist for industry collaboration on standardisation and collective bargaining.
With pricing pressure mounting, standardisation initiatives could reduce costs whilst improving supplier interchangeability.
5. The Strategic Importance of External Manufacturing
There has been fundamental shift in how external manufacturing is perceived and valued within pharmaceutical organisations. The function has evolved from tactical procurement to strategic capability over the past five years.
Companies now recognise that “CDMO performance is better than internal sites” and that strategic importance of supply continuity at board-level, elevating the function’s organisational influence.
Recognition of the critical role of external manufacturing to modern pharma would help improving talent recruitment and retention.
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