The fire drill: one change in pharma, and the weekend it costs

I've seen brilliant people lose entire weekends to a problem that shouldn't exist.

A single change in pharma can set off a cascade of manual, time-consuming work:

• New API supplier: where is it registered? What's the downstream impact? Which post-approval changes do we file, and where?
• New manufacturing site: which territories market the product? Do we need health-authority approval? How long will that take? Could we stock out in the meantime?

Then comes the reconciliation, the version drift, and the hunt through the spreadsheet that somehow became the source of truth.

Ring any bells?

You accept it because it is the established practice.

But after several years in pharma, I've stopped accepting it. The complexity is real. The pain isn't; it comes from managing that complexity with disconnected tools and manual effort.

So I'm going to start writing about the problems pharma actually lives with, and what I consider a better solution.

If you've lived the fire drill too, I'd like to hear your version of it. Let's talk!