Studies abound in supplier selection literature regarding making a right choice in the
businesses in their upstream supply chains. Nevertheless, the selection of the supply chain
associates in the downstream can appear also no less crucial for them with regard to the
‘right triplet quality-delivery-cost’ objectives of connecting with their end-customers
with a sharper competitive outlook to protect and enhance their market share. In service
of the cause of these three basic objectives of the organizational supply chains, therefore,
the companies attempt enlarging their span of influence, at least over the tier-1 along
both directions, if not more. The key players in the pharmaceutical industry are the large
multinationals, who are concentrated on research and development, huge and local
manufacturers, drug discovery and biotechnology companies (Shah, 2004).
In every company, there is always a need of reaching the downstream customers most
efficiently, i.e., the downstream product manufacturers where they make use of the
company’s products, or the downstream product distributors/retailers. In case of
pharmaceutical company, the end-consumers are mostly via the doctors. Reaching the
final destination is always dependent on the supply line efficiency of the company. In this scenario, the first and the foremost point of significance is the distribution channel in
both forward chain and the backward chain from the downstream manufacturers, dealers/
distributors, retailers and their feeder suppliers in tandem. Intermediate suppliers act as
a catalyst in this value transmission chain. A typical supply chain of the pharmaceutical
industry includes primary and secondary manufacturing, market warehouses/distribution
centers, wholesalers and retailers/hospitals (Yu et al., 2010).
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