Procurement’s New Mandate in Regulated Healthcare Industries

By Purvee Kondal, NACD.DC, Chief Working Officer in Residence, Moral Provide Chain & Operations Chief | Transformation Chief | Visionary | Speaker | Board Member | Mother | Spouse

Editor: Deanna Vanston, MBA, Strategic Procurement Enterprise Companion| Championing Enterprise Transformation and Innovation By way of Expertise-Pushed Options| Collaborative Partnership for Enhanced Effectivity and Worth.

Introduction

Early in my profession at best-in-class firms like Johnson & Johnson and GE, I discovered the worth of lean strategies, streamlined processes, and steady enchancment as guiding rules. These experiences instilled greatest practices I nonetheless apply immediately to optimize, alongside an appreciation for the considerate strategy regulated industries soak up course of, group, and gear design.

In distinction, non-regulated sectors like retail usually lack this rigor, requiring adaptability and steady studying to ship on commitments. Staying attuned to developments in regulated industries, I’m sharing insights on how procurement is evolving in pharma, biotech, and medical units to drive worth over the subsequent 18–24 months.

Drawing on real-world examples, right here’s how procurement and sourcing, empowered by supportive organizations, are remodeling capabilities with sensible methods utilizing expertise and analytics as the muse.

1. Optimizing Prices Whereas Supporting Innovation
   Procurement and sourcing groups at Medtronicdrove a 20% provider base discount since 2023, attaining $500M in annual financial savingswhereas sustaining high quality for medical system elements and controlled providers like advertising and marketing and HR, per inside reviews and the 2024 sustainability report. Business benchmarks counsel a 15% financial savings potential in Advertising and marketing and HR by provider consolidation. McKinsey, 2024.

How They Did It:

• Spend Evaluation: Procurement led a technology-driven spend evaluation utilizing SAP Ariba, figuring out redundant contracts and contributing to $500M in financial savings throughout system elements and controlled providers.
• Strategic Negotiations: Sourcing groups negotiated multi-year contracts with efficiency incentives, decreasing overhead prices for GMP-compliant suppliers.
• Innovation Metrics: Procurement designed KPIs utilizing analytics platforms to trace R&D reinvestment, guaranteeing financial savings supported new product improvement.

In my expertise, procurement’s use of expertise to streamline analytics and negotiations drives value reductions whereas advancing innovation, a mannequin different companies can replicate in regulated environments.

C-suite query: How are your procurement’s tech-driven methods unlocking sources to your subsequent breakthrough?

2. Enhancing Provide Chain Resilience
   Procurement and sourcing groups at Pfizerstrengthened provide chain resilience by diversifying its provider community to boost resilience, per its 2024 sustainability report.

How They Did It:

• Threat Scoring: Procurement used Coupa’s danger module to evaluate suppliers on geopolitical and monetary stability, prioritizing resilient distributors for biologics and compliant advertising and marketing providers.
• Versatile Contracts: Sourcing groups negotiated contracts with quantity flexibility clauses, decreasing disruption prices by 10% for GMP-trained HR suppliers.
• Compliance Integration: Procurement ensured FDA compliance by implementing TrackWise for real-time GMP traceability.

In my expertise with regulated industries, procurement’s adoption of expertise for danger administration and compliance builds agile provide chains, a blueprint for firms dealing with volatility.

C-suite query: How is your procurement staff leveraging expertise to form your provide chain’s resilience in regulated environments?

3. Embedding Compliance and Sustainability
   Procurement and sourcing groups at Novo Nordiskembedded compliance and sustainability, focusing on a 33% discount in Scope 3 emissions by 2033 by initiatives like provider renewable power transitions, per its 2024 sustainability report, aligning with EU’s CSRD.

How They Did It:

• Vendor Scorecards: Procurement developed EcoVadis scorecards to implement emissions and moral follow targets for suppliers of FDA-compliant advertising and marketing and Services providers.
• Collaborative Pilots: Sourcing groups led tech-enabled pilots for low-carbon packaging, decreasing prices by 5%.
• Strategic Provider Partnerships: Procurement engaged various distributors for aggressive pricing and innovation, utilizing digital sourcing platforms, a precept I’ve superior.

In my expertise, procurement’s use of expertise to set requirements and foster collaboration delivers measurable worth, a mannequin for compliance and accountability in regulated industries.

C-suite query: How are your procurement groups utilizing expertise to drive compliance and sustainability?

4. Leveraging Digital Instruments Strategically
   Procurement and sourcing groups at Strykerleveraged digital instruments, decreasing provider danger publicity by 30% in 2024, per inside reviews and the 2024 annual report, optimizing spend for surgical gear and controlled providers.

How They Did It:

• Analytics Integration: Procurement built-in Jaggaer’s predictive analytics to flag high-risk suppliers, streamlining audits for compliant Services contracts.
• Course of Automation: Sourcing groups automated 40% of buy orders with SAP Concur, saving 20 hours weekly for HR compliance spend.
• Scaled Pilots: Procurement led AI-driven forecasting pilots, scaling after a 12% value discount, with functions for advertising and marketing in regulated environments.

In my expertise, procurement’s management and each staff member’s adoption of information with steady studying mindset to embrace analytics, AI, and automation will maximize ROI whereas sustaining stability, is a technique different organizations may emulate.

C-suite query: How are your sourcing and procurement groups exploring digital instruments to boost their procurement’s influence in operations?

Trying Forward

As procurement evolves in 2025–2026, regulated industries will lead with AI-driven analytics, focusing on 70% adoption for instruments like predictive sourcing (Gartner, 2024). As seen in Novo Nordisk’s renewable power initiatives, sustainability will drive provider choice, with 80% of pharma companies setting Scope 3 emissions targets (Deloitte, 2025).

Nearshoring will bolster resilience amid geopolitical dangers, with companies like Pfizer diversifying provider networks. Compliance tech, like TrackWise, will handle stricter rules (e.g., EU CSRD). These traits place procurement as a strategic C-suite associate, unlocking worth in healthcare’s advanced panorama.

C-suite query: How will these traits form your procurement technique within the subsequent 18–24 months?

In Closing

Procurement and sourcing capabilities in each regulated and unregulated business are at a crossroads for transformation. In regulated environments, firms like Medtronic, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, and Stryker present how procurement and sourcing—powered by expertise and analytics—ship value financial savings, resilience, compliance, and stakeholder worth, not as check-the-box workouts, however as aggressive benefits.

Expertise needs to be embedded as a basis in each procurement perform, from spend analytics to AI-driven forecasting. With AI accelerating change, sourcing and procurement groups throughout all ranges and classes—IT, compliant advertising and marketing, GMP-trained HR, Services, Development, and past—should turn out to be tech-centric, ideally tech-savvy, to unlock their full potential. This crucial extends to any business, as expertise reshapes sourcing’s position.

In my expertise, procurement’s alignment with C-suite priorities is barely potential when a proactive, steady studying mindset is current, remodeling challenges into alternatives. Waiting for the subsequent 18–24 months, procurement’s mandate is to drive worth within the evolving panorama.

I’d welcome studying about how expertise is shaping procurement in your group. Join with me to debate methods for optimizing value, resilience, and compliance in regulated industries.

Purvee Kondal, Chief Working Officer in Residence

#RegulatedIndustries #Procurement #Sourcing #DigitalTransformation #Healthcare

References

1. Medtronic. (2024). Sustainability Report: https://www.medtronic.com/about/sustainability
2. Pfizer. (2024). Sustainability Report: https://www.pfizer.com/sustainability
3. Novo Nordisk. (2024). Sustainability Report: https://www.novonordisk.com/sustainability
4. Stryker. (2024). Annual Report: https://buyers.stryker.com/annual-reports/default.aspx
5. McKinsey & Firm. (2024). Healthcare Procurement Optimization: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/procurement
6. Gartner. (2024). Procurement Expertise Tendencies.
7. Deloitte. (2025). Pharmaceutical Provide Chain Outlook.
8. IQVIA. (2024). Pharma Carbon Emissions Report.