The Adoption of Collaborative Practices: A Survey on the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

The aim of this paper is to analyse the pharmaceutical supply chain in order to identify how relevant are the collaboration practices and how diffused is the collaborative culture. There are some interesting experiences of collaboration among the actors of the supply chain. The bond of trust defined in relevant literature is evidenced both in the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and pre-wholesalers and in the one between wholesalers and pharmacies. The aspect which most greatly characterizes the pharmaceutical distribution chain in Italy is that of information exchange. The informational flow between the actors in the distribution chain allows for the creation of partnerships within the pharmaceutical supply chain which stimulate the optimization of the distribution process. Integration between partners is brought about through the development of electronic data transmission projects which utilize standard EDI and internet.