Less than 50% of life science companies (20% to 46%) currently have access to real-time data according to a recent report.

During the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/XPO, held in Orlando, Florida May 8 to May 10, 2023, a presentation entitled “Future of Life Science Supply Chain” was hosted by Maria Nieradka, VP analyst at Gartner. Nieradka said research that shows that between 67% and 93% of life science companies are not using real-time data to make real-time decisions. Moreover, less than 15% of life science companies immediately execute real-time decisions based on the use of real-time data.

“You want to get data to work for you. It’s about having the ability to make decisions in real-time,” Nieradka said. “Technology is absolutely a way to get there… There’s definitely a ways to go, but it's possible.”

Gartner's research also found that more than 50% of life science companies are investing in logistics tools for organizational managers. “That’s an insight I thought was helpful because there are a lot of places we could invest in the supply chain, and the top one for life sciences is certainly logistics,” Nierdka said.

Besides logistics, life science companies are also investing heavily in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Seventy-one percent of responders said their life science company has an investment strategy that supports ESG goals, and 70% of life science companies’ supply chains are on track to meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals by 2030.

“In our 2022 Top 25, six out of the top ten life science companies received a perfect ESG score,” Nieradka said. “We have a lot to learn in terms of how you deliver sustainability, and most of the gaps in sustainability are actually in performance, not transparency.”

Information for the “Future of Life Science Supply Chain” report was gathered through an analysis of Gartner’s “2022 Future of Supply Chain Survey,” which received responses from 676 supply chain professionals across 13 major industries in four regions around the globe between August 2022 and October 2022. Of the 676 supply chain professional interviewed for the study, 113 responders (16.7%) worked for life science companies.