McKesson Corp., an international healthcare services and information technology company, is strengthening its position in Canada's pharmaceutical supply chain with the acquisition of Rexall Health for US$2.2bn.

In the latest Worldwide Commercial Robotics Spending Guide, International Data Corp. forecasts global spending on robotics and related services to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent from more than $71bn in 2015 to $135.4bn in 2019. The guide measures purchases of robotic systems, system hardware, software, robotics-related services, and after-market robotics hardware on a regional level across 13 key industries and 52 use cases.

Walgreens has selected Deliv, a crowdsourced, last-mile delivery company, to make same-day prescription deliveries in Dallas.

Healthcare supply chains have all the challenges of supply chains in other industries, but they also have unique issues that add an extra measure of complexity: The strict government regulations that healthcare supply chains must conform to increase the difficulty of balancing speed, visibility and control. Here's a look at some of the problems healthcare companies face in supply chain management.

Innovation of the Year: Disruptive technology products must get to market faster than ever, and a product innovation center at Flextronics reconfigures the supply chain to do just that. Runner-up: Sears Holdings Corp. Finalists: Intel, Fast Logistics, Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council

The furious pace of M&A activity in life sciences indicates there is serious money to be made there. But successful companies must quickly adapt their supply chains to the challenges that shifting customer needs and industry regulations bring. Five crucial ideas that winners must understand are outlined below.