Early-stage and emerging pharma companies must design supply chains that can support rapid growth, late-stage clinical milestones, and the transition to commercial production—all while operating with lean teams and limited infrastructure. This panel brings together biotech supply chain leaders to discuss how they build foundational processes, choose the right partners, manage risk with small volumes, and establish the capabilities needed for future scale.

• Establish essential supply chain capabilities early, including forecasting, quality systems, material planning, logistics, and supplier management
• Leverage partners strategically to close capability gaps without overbuilding internal teams too soon
• Prepare for scale-up by designing flexible processes and networks that can grow with portfolio and demand complexity

As personalized, low-volume, high-value therapies like CAR-T and cell & gene treatments scale, both manufacturers and specialty couriers are facing unprecedented cost and capacity pressures. While these therapies are medically transformative, their logistics requirements, ultra-cold conditions, patient-specific handling, and ad hoc routing, can make transportation prohibitively expensive and operationally inefficient. This panel brings together pharma leaders and key specialty providers to unpack how both sides can rethink partnership models, cost structures, service design, and shared incentives to ensure these therapies remain viable, accessible, and sustainable.

• Align pricing models and service expectations by building transparent, long-term partnerships that reflect true volume, risk, and operational complexity
• Optimize cost drivers by exploring shared capacity, hub strategies, and alternative service designs that reduce reliance on one-off, high-cost lanes
• Collaborate earlier in therapy and network design to ensure courier capabilities, manufacturing realities, and patient needs are integrated into a scalable, affordable logistics model