The biopharmaceutical industry is committed to ensuring that
not just Americans have access to the medicines they need but also people from
all around the world.
The result of this is that companies make sure the manufacturing of medicines
remains as uninterrupted, which enables the supply to meet the current demands
in the market.
Unfortunately for the United States, there seems to be many misleading stories around that dismiss America’s leadership in
biopharmaceutical manufacturing which suggest that reliance on other countries
has put the country at risk of having potential shortages. When the reality is
that a large amount of manufacturing happens on the United States home soil,
supporting 120,000 manufacturing jobs across its states, which range through
the life cycle of each project, including CQV
jobs, Pharmacovigilance
jobs and Quality jobs.
Growth within the industry
The biopharmaceutical industry has a solid and growing
presence in the United States with a particularly strong focus on
manufacturing. There is a large supply chain within the biopharmaceutical
industry and it supports
more than 4 million jobs across the United States directly employing more
than 811,000 Americans. Over 13% of those jobs are categorised as high-wage
manufacturing jobs, which means they sit at almost double that of the private
sector. Wages
for manufacturing jobs within biopharmaceutical were 72% greater than the
average wage for the whole entirety of U.S. manufacturing jobs. There are over 1,300
biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities across the United States that hold these
jobs, leading to support for national and local economies.
Investments in biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities
are continuing to grow. The past two years biopharmaceutical companies have
announced plans to invest more than $27 billion in the United
States,
including new manufacturing plants. Between 2000 and 2016, biopharmaceuticals
outpaced all other manufacturing sectors in U.S. economic output growth. This
only supports the fact that the United States is at the forefront of leadership
in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
How can biopharmaceutical manufacturing have stability?
Ensuring the stability of the manufacturing supply chain is
to be geographically diverse, which includes having a heavy presence in the
United States. Overlooking the sheer amount of manufacturing that happens within the United States and the
impact this has on the economy would be foolish. Especially with discussions
about increasing the manufacturing industries are in the works. Although this
would bring more support to the economy it can’t be forgotten that the States
already sustains a substantial manufacturing presence that is part of a larger
global network. Taking the majority of biopharmaceutical manufacturing to the
United States couldn’t happen without disrupting the entire biopharmaceutical supply
chain all over the world.
There are a few strategies often discussed within the
industries but one of these is to maintain a stable and fully working geographically
diverse supply chain. Geographic diversity is key to the stability of a
manufacturing supply chain for medicine. Often this is overlooked and in times
such as COVID-19, this is a crucial element that allows flexibility for
companies when they need it most. For example, if one small area had a whole
pharmaceutical supply chain dependent on it and there was an issue such as a
pandemic or natural disaster this could lead to significant disruptions to
supply chain with global implications. There have been some key examples of
this happening. Hurricane Maria in 2017, approximately 50 pharmaceutical manufacturing
facilities were in Puerto Rico at the time of the hurricane, and their capacity
was impacted by the disaster.
Because of robust supply chains and close coordination with the FDA, the industry was quickly able to shift manufacturing to facilities in other areas
and prevent long-term drug shortages.
This leaves the need for biopharmaceutical companies to be
able to make adjustments in the sourcing of their materials and be able to
shift manufacturing to different facilities if any emergency might happen.
Building a new facility is often not the most viable option especially during
an emergency. Companies need to take into account the locations of each
facility and have extensive measures in place to manage all the various
elements of the manufacturing process and including access to skilled workers
and specialised materials that might be needed. Finding skilled workers can
sometimes be a struggle especially if locations are more remote, which is why
specialist recruiters can have a huge part to play in placing these positions.
2020 has bought many unpredicted times and the concerns
regarding the continuity of the pharmaceutical supply chain and a desire for
the U.S. to not be reliant on any countries that might pose a national security
risk when it comes to pharmaceutical manufacturing. The discussions about ways
to increase manufacturing in the United States are extremely important for
growing jobs and the economy but the importance of geographic diversity in the
supply chain to make sure it remains uninterrupted to be able to supply the
medicines people need.
How can Quanta continue to support the biopharmaceutical manufacturing
industry?
Quanta’s life sciences team have been placing candidates in
American for over 10 years. Contributing to both the local economy but also the
international economy by accepting jobs from all over the world and providing
skilled workers. Take a look at our latest Life Sciences jobs.
