RX-360 PSC 2025: Building Trust and Resilience in Pharma

Taking place in Washington D.C., RX-360 Patient Safety Conference 2025 was packed with insights, anecdotes, and occasional candor concerning the future of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Over two days, panelists and speakers addressed everything from counterfeiting drugs to audits of suppliers, and the common theme was clear: patient safety is all of us.

Day 1: Facing the Challenges Head-On

The first day opened with practical insights into the $430 billion problem of diversion and counterfeiting of drugs. This problem goes beyond just revenues lost. These interruptions actually risk lives and undermine patient trust.

There was strong emphasis by both Geoffrey Potter and Tim Waters that stronger mechanisms to prevent these events from taking place at all are needed. Some areas for improvement and discussed where the grey market, U.S. vs foreign events in counterfeiting, and the deep impact supply chain vetting has

Following was an informative educational session in the evolution of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and its future implications. Distribution procedures at the global level, verification through testing for quality, and regulation all became part of the equation. In short, according to Leigh Verbois: don’t be mediocre, doing the bare minimum is not okay when it comes to safeguarding patient safety.

“Don’t be lackluster. Don’t just do the bare minimum”

• — Leigh Verbois

Speakers from leading pharma companies and suppliers all concurred: quality and compliance are not an afterthought. They’re culture. From fears of contamination to issues of packaging, all failures remind us that the CAPITAL “C” in current good manufacturing practices (CGMP) matters.

Day 2: Practical Tools and Human Stories

Day 2 shifted from deep problem outlines to the solutions we are developing. Emphasis was laid upon resources and tools that could potentially make supplier management and auditing less torturous, yet more successful.

Sessions encouraged techniques such as root cause analysis, FMEA, and Supplier Corrective Action Reports (SCAR). So much focus has been placed upon the Digital Supplier Assessment Questionnaire (DSAQ) to quicken and make more meaningful audits. Instead of yet another checkbox experience, it’s about gaining a better idea of where risks are and how to fix them.

The day concluded with a fireside chat with RX-360’s CEO, Jim Fries, who left the room with the following powerful reminder:

• “Start putting more resources in keeping patients safe.”

• “Resilience is taking center stage.”

And most importantly:

• “Patient safety is not about profits.”

Those lines took hold. Because at the end of the day, it was not a gee-whiz new technology conference, not buzzwords. It was people, patients, suppliers, regulators, and all those in between, all coming together to design something safer, something more reliable.

The Big Takeaway

Both days had something in common, and that was that resilience is not just buzzword material, it’s mandatory. Whether it is waging war against spurious drugs, advancing regulations worldwide, or even excelling at dealing with suppliers, the world of pharma needs to keep reinventing itself.

It's easy for us: if you have the ability to act, act. Build better systems, leverage all of the resources that are available to you, and keep patients at the center of every decision. Because at the end of the day, trust is the single biggest product that we can deliver.

This is a recount and notes from Zeph about the rx-360 conference.

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