• Abin C Abraham
• Dr. Sunil Adhav

The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing major upheavals in this century and there is an urgent need to address these issues to thrive and prosper in the sector, as everyday a new opportunity and the scope is being widened. Many companies have responded by trying to discover, develop, market and distribute medicines more efficiently. But these firms have invested relatively little effort in reconfiguring their supply chain and distribution operations to date and to meet the competition. Most pharmaceutical companies have complex supply chains that are mostly under-utilized and inefficient and also some are ill-equipped to cope with the products and changing requirements that are coming up. Therefore, the pharmaceutical supply chain needs a radical overhaul. This paper studies the challenges, scope and various issues existing in the current pharmaceutical supply chain. The study analyzes the prevalent supply chain of the sector and crucially points out the hitches that can be effectively managed to achieve superior operations mainly in the depots and distribution warehouses. Further the study anatomizes a case study of Square Pharmaceutical Ltd. describing the entire supply chain mainly focusing the operations at its depots and the distribution chain. This paper also discusses in detail about technologies like database management system, internet of things and artificial intelligence, listing out its scope, advantages and limitations. Towards the end, the study concludes by suggesting some implications of these technologies in improvising the pharmaceutical distribution and efficiently counteracting certain problems like counterfeit of drugs, forecasting issues and other operational hurdles commonly occurring in the warehouses and depots. The study incorporates RFID, EPC, predictive analysis, wireless sensor networks, PML and other management software to eradicate the existing predicaments of pharmaceutical sector. This paper also summarizes various potential initiatives taken by some of the leading pharma firms to improve their supply chain operations.

Pharmaceutical, API, technology, AI, IoT, RFID

"Role Of Technology In Optimizing Pharmaceutical Distribution", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 10, page no.2797-2806, October-2020, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2010365.pdf

"Role Of Technology In Optimizing Pharmaceutical Distribution", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 10, page no. pp2797-2806, October-2020, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2010365.pdf