مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد بررسی ساختاری مدل های کمی زنجیره تامین دارویی – هینداوی 2017

One of the objectives of a healthcare system is to guarantee access to medicines as a basic human right [1]. The pharmaceutical supply chain must provide the correct medicines in an adequate condition, to the right customer, at the right time and place, and at a minimum cost [2]. The high level of complexity in the healthcare sector is represented in the interactions between the various actors in the chain, including vendors, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and providers [3, 4]. A typical configuration of a pharmaceutical supply chain includes a group of manufacturers which can be divided into five categories: multinational companies, generic manufacturers, local companies, contract manufacturers, and biotechnological companies [5]. Also included are a group of purchasers, including wholesalers and distributors, and a group of providers including hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies [3]. The activities of a pharmaceutical supply chain involve the flow and transformation of medicines from raw materials through to the end users; in addition, the associated information flows through the relationships in the supply chain to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage [6]. An illustrative example of a classical configuration is presented in Figure 1. It can be observed that medicines can be delivered directly from warehouses or the requirement also can be satisfied by the pharmacies. In addition to the contribution of health services, the pharmacotherapeutic supply chain is an important contributor to the healthcare system [7]. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most challenging industries in the world, since it is estimated that medicines consume about 20%–30% of global health spending [8]. However, pharmaceutical supply chain management is more difficult than typical applications within industrial companies, since medicines and surgical supplies must be available for use at all times [9]. It has been shown that the appropriate management of medicines and pharmaceutical products is directly related to the ability of a country to address public health concerns; it has also been identified that the management of pharmaceutical supplies is one of the most important managerial issues in healthcare industries [10]. Due to the complexity and the importance of the pharmaceutical supply chain, anything less than a service level of 100% is unacceptable, since this has a direct impact on public health. For this reason, one acceptable solution which can be adopted by a pharmaceutical supply chain is to carry a huge amount of inventory in order to ensure a fill rate close to 100%. However, if a pharmaceutical company adopts this level of inventory, this increases the total costs assumed by the organization; it also represents a challenge since most of the medicines and products are perishable. It has been estimated that in supermarkets and drug stores the cost of expiration is over 500 million dollars per year [11]. In addition to the perishability of medicines, pharmaceutical supply chains deal with the problems of demand uncertainty, limitations of space, legal regulations, and patient safety. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe several previous reviews and studies related to pharmaceutical supply chain management. The procedure used for the selection of papers is explained in Section 3. In Section 4, a description of the articles is presented, and finally Section 5 presents the conclusions of this review.