OR Applications in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management

Abbas Ahmadi (), Mohammad Mousazadeh (), S. Ali Torabi () and Mir Saman Pishvaee ()
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Abbas Ahmadi: Iran University of Science and Technology
Mohammad Mousazadeh: University of Tehran
S. Ali Torabi: University of Tehran
Mir Saman Pishvaee: Iran University of Science and Technology

Chapter Chapter 18 in Operations Research Applications in Health Care Management, 2018, pp 461-491 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Sustainable development of a nation greatly depends on the health of individuals. The emergence of the diseases caused by unhealthy lifestyle as well as the growth and aging of the population have faced the pharmaceutical industry with an increasing demand for drugs and the related products over time. This increase in demand has made the pharmaceutical industry as an important and large industry which constitutes a considerable portion of the healthcare expenditures. This sector is grappling with many challenges and inefficiencies in research and development activities, introducing new products, procurement, manufacturing, storage, and distribution affairs. Such issues have resulted in the inability of pharmaceutical companies to satisfy market demand in an efficient while effective manner. These problems alongside the dynamic and complex nature of a pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) necessitate the employment of efficient optimization techniques to provide these companies with informed decision making by relying on available data. Hence, this chapter aims to identify the prevalent challenges of PSCs at three different decision levels, i.e., long-term (strategic), mid-term (tactical), and short-term (operational) decisions; as well as presenting various ways to deal with such problems. Accordingly, first, the characteristics of a PSC are presented and discussed. In order to provide a tangible perspective for application of Operations Research in PSC, an exhaustive mathematical programming model is presented. Then, a real practical case study is described and investigated and a number of avenues for further research are finally suggested.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical; Supply chain; Mathematical programming; Decision making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-65455-3_18

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