Abstract
High-income countries are facing a significant and worsening drug shortage problem. This
position paper argues that operations and supply chain management (OSCM) could (and perhaps
should) be used more widely to help address this issue: 1) the problem has significant societal
impacts, 2) it poses complex questions for stakeholders and finding answers is challenging due to the
complex
and dynamic nature of drug supply chains, 3) OSCM scholars are well positioned to provide answers,
and 4) the problem introduces fundamentally new research directions for OSCM. To substantiate
this,
we carried out a review of key stakeholder reports from six European countries and a systematic
review of academic literature. These show that there is no real agreement among stakeholders
about what causes the shortages and that there are few academic studies that examine this. We also
show
that stakeholders have suggested many different government measures – ranging from ‘reshoring
production’ to revising procurement policies and increasing stock levels – but that there is little
research that provides evidence on their comparative cost-effectiveness. Based on our findings, we
discuss three promising research directions to which our discipline could contribute.
position paper argues that operations and supply chain management (OSCM) could (and perhaps
should) be used more widely to help address this issue: 1) the problem has significant societal
impacts, 2) it poses complex questions for stakeholders and finding answers is challenging due to the
complex
and dynamic nature of drug supply chains, 3) OSCM scholars are well positioned to provide answers,
and 4) the problem introduces fundamentally new research directions for OSCM. To substantiate
this,
we carried out a review of key stakeholder reports from six European countries and a systematic
review of academic literature. These show that there is no real agreement among stakeholders
about what causes the shortages and that there are few academic studies that examine this. We also
show
that stakeholders have suggested many different government measures – ranging from ‘reshoring
production’ to revising procurement policies and increasing stock levels – but that there is little
research that provides evidence on their comparative cost-effectiveness. Based on our findings, we
discuss three promising research directions to which our discipline could contribute.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Unknown |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Sept 2021 |