Japanese deal for French logistics firm
multi-year contract from Japan's Sankyo Pharma to provide logistics
and distribution services for its drug products in the French
market.
The deal covers Sankyo's rheumatology and cardiology product range and DGX Pharma will be responsible for the management of storage, sales order processing and distribution to wholesalers, hospitals and pharmacies in France.
DGX will also export the products to further locations within Europe from its warehouse near Paris, as and when required by Sankyo.
"Our outsourcing services offer Sankyo a real opportunity to optimise their supply chain whilst focusing upon their key competencies at the same time," said Alain Bosson director of business development for DGX.
DGX Pharma is a subsidiary of the Movianto Group, the logistics services business of Celesio, one of the three biggest pharmaceutical wholesalers in Europe, along with Alliance/Unichem and Phoenix.
Over the past decade European pharmaceutical wholesalers have been facing tough times, Outsourcing-Pharma.com heard at the recent annual general meeting of the European Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (GIRP) in Budapest.
Margins continue to be squeezed as a result of government efforts to reduce the increasing financial burdens of drugs on public health care expenditures and as a result, the industry has experienced considerable consolidation, with 70 per cent of the industry's market share being held by these three top players.
In a bid to stay competitive in this arena, the three top firms have all been slowly making acquisitions and diversifying their business in order to offer outsourcing services to big pharma manufacturers, who are at the same time eyeing new opportunities to save time, resources and money.
