“多极化制药世界”的未来是“多节点供应链”

By [email protected]

9 November 2026

China, India, and the Middle East are all playing their role in shifting the geographical centre of production and innovation, the three regions emerging as particularly important to the global pharmaceutical supply chain

Frank van Gelder, secretary general of Pharma.Aero, said a fracturing of the supply chain with a more geographically diffuse network of production, healthcare providers, and clinical centres could create new opportunities for airfreight and specialist logistics providers.

“China is no longer only a major source of pharmaceutical ingredients and manufacturing capacity; it is becoming an increasingly important centre for biotechnology, clinical development, and innovative medicines,” he told The Loadstar.

“India remains essential to generics and manufacturing, while expanding its innovative capabilities; Europe and North America remain central, but innovation and production are becoming more geographically distributed.

While Europe and North America would remain important pharma centres, he said the emergence of additional innovation and production hubs was creating what he called a “multi-polar pharmaceutical world”.

For logistics providers, “that means multi-node supply chains – interconnected manufacturing sites, clinical centres, specialised logistics hubs, and healthcare delivery points, rather than dependence on a few dominant origins and gateways”, Mr van Gelder explained.

“For air cargo this opens opportunities for new regional gateways and specialised corridors, but it also demands much better network orchestration,” he added. However, he cautioned that nodes must be “qualified, connected, interoperable, and economically justified”.

That meant those considering it needed to be able to distinguish between diversification and “expensive duplication”, he said, noting:“More nodes do not automatically mean greater resilience, more tonnage, or better profitability.”

And he warned that the emergence of regional gateways and specialised corridors would place greater demands on the ability of logistics operators to coordinate, given the increased complexity in these international networks.

The requirement for temperature-controlled infrastructure, qualified handling facilities, and reliable connections between different supply chain participants was particularly important as pharmaceutical products become more specialised, he added.

Mr van Gelder said: “The most profound change comes with advanced therapies. In autologous cell therapy, a patient’s cells can be collected, transported for manufacturing, and returned as a personalised treatment.

“Chain of identity, chain of custody, time, temperature, and clinical scheduling become inseparable. A disruption can affect a treatment appointment. Radioligand therapies introduce another set of highly time-sensitive, product-specific constraints,” he said.

However, Mr van Gelder cautioned against assuming the emergence of new pharmaceutical production centres or growth in innovative medicines would automatically translate into greater airfreight volumes.