The COVID-19 outbreak has prompted pharmaceutical companies to evaluate their existing small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) supply strategies.

GlobalData has conducted a survey to assess how the pandemic will influence the small molecule API supply strategies of pharmaceutical companies in North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Rest of World (RoW) amid the pandemic.

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Analysis of the survey results shows that an increased number of companies except those in North America expect changes to their strategies in Q3 compared to Q1.

Approximately 62% of the companies in North America did not expect any changes to the strategies in Q1, compared to 52% in Q3.

Small Molecule API Strategies, Q1 versus Q3

The percentage increased from 39% in Q1 to 65% in Q3 for companies in Europe, from 50% to 55% for APAC companies, and from 15% to 60% for companies in RoW.

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Companies planning to diversify small molecule API manufacturing sites to more countries increased from Q1 to Q3 in North America and APAC, but declined in Europe and RoW.

The percentage of companies in RoW which expect that they need small molecule API manufacturing sites in more countries dropped from 62% in Q1 to 40% in Q3. Similarly, 17% of the companies in North America planned to diversify small molecule API manufacturing network in Q1, which increased to 34% in Q3.

The percentage dropped from 25% in Q1 to 13% in Q3 for companies in Europe and increased marginally from 21% in Q1 to 22% in Q3 for companies in APAC.

Furthermore, the North American companies which opined that they need small molecule API manufacturing sites in fewer countries increased marginally from 9% in Q1 to 10% in Q3.

The percentage declined from 8% in Q1 to 4% in Q3 for companies in Europe and from 14% in Q1 to 6% in Q3 for companies in APAC. Approximately, 15% of the companies in RoW in Q1 opined that they need manufacturing sites in fewer countries, while the percentage dropped to 0% in Q3.

The percentage of companies which do not use small molecule APIs slipped from 12% in Q1 to 3% in Q3 in North America and from 27% to 17% in Europe. The figure increased from 14% in Q1 to 17% in Q3 for companies in APAC. Approximately 8% of the companies from RoW in Q1 opined that they did not use small molecule API, which declined to 0% in Q3.

The analysis is based responses received from the Pharmaceutical Trade and Supply Chain Survey fielded between 07 July and 30 July 2020.