Austria as a pharmaceutical location: How a central EU position supports efficient and resilient supply chains
Global supply chains place high logistical and organisational demands on pharmaceutical companies. Crises, geopolitical tensions and limited transport capacity have shown in recent years how vulnerable widely branched supply structures can be. If active ingredient manufacturing, primary filling and secondary packaging are spread across different sites and several continents, delays at one point can affect the entire supply chain. Longer transport times, additional interfaces and greater coordination effort make reliable planning more difficult.
Against this background, regional packaging capacity within Europe is gaining importance. Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking for ways to organise packaging processes closer to their target markets, shorten transport routes and respond more flexibly to changing market requirements.
Why extensive supply chains create additional challenges
Longer lead times and more capital tied up
The further apart production, packaging and distribution sites are, the longer transport and lead times can be. To cushion possible delays, companies often have to plan additional safety stock. This ties up capital and increases the effort for warehousing and inventory management. At the same time, international transport times cannot always be calculated reliably because of different routes, transhipment points and possible bottlenecks.
Additional interfaces and coordination effort
Anyone who organises manufacturing, filling and packaging across different service providers and countries has to coordinate numerous processes. These include scheduling, documentation, quality releases and transport coordination. For deliveries from third countries, further customs and regulatory requirements apply, depending on the combination of goods and products. Every additional interface increases the organisational effort and can affect the lead time.
Limited flexibility when market requirements change
The demand for medicines and the requirements of individual markets can change at short notice. This applies, for example, to country-specific packaging variants with different labelling, package leaflets or serialisation requirements. If these packaging steps are carried out far from the target market, adjustments can involve longer lead times.
What a central location within the EU makes possible
A packaging site within the European single market does not replace global production structures. It can, however, help to make the last stage of the supply chain more efficient: from the finished filled product to the market-ready medicinal product pack for the respective target market.
Christoph Reinwald, General Manager of Complex Pharmaceuticals, describes this approach as follows:
“It is not about isolation, but about strengthening regional resilience within global structures.”
Austria offers good infrastructural and economic conditions for this. The central location in Europe, stable legal framework conditions, regulatory expertise and qualified skilled workers create an environment for pharmaceutical packaging services with an international orientation.
Traiskirchen: storage, secondary packaging and shipping at one site
The Complex Pharmaceuticals site is located in the Logistik Park Tribus in Traiskirchen, south of Vienna and in the immediate vicinity of the A2 Südautobahn motorway. The location offers good connections to the DACH region and other European markets.
The site area is being expanded from around 7,800 to 15,200 square metres. GxP-compliant storage areas are planned for ambient products at 15 to 25 °C and for refrigerated goods at 2 to 8 °C. The infrastructure is complemented by modular packaging lines with equipment from Uhlmann Pac-Systeme and Bausch+Ströbel.
Bringing together goods receipt, storage, secondary packaging and shipping at one site reduces additional logistical interfaces and makes it possible to avoid intermediate transport between different service providers. You can find an overview of the planned technical equipment on our production page.
The packaging lines are designed for different batch sizes: from smaller quantities for clinical trials to large-volume production runs. This creates the conditions for late-stage customisation: country-specific packaging and labelling can take place as close as possible to the respective sales market. If market requirements or demand in individual countries change, packaging variants can be adjusted accordingly within Europe.
Shorter transport routes and the bundling of logistics processes can also help to reduce transport-related emissions and improve efficiency along the supply chain.
Security of supply: regional capacities are gaining importance in Europe
At European level, too, strengthening regional production capacity is increasingly being discussed. With the Critical Medicines Act, the EU aims to strengthen the supply of critical medicines, reduce dependencies on individual suppliers and third countries, and expand production capacity in Europe.
Regional packaging services can complement this development by creating additional capacity within Europe and supporting the organisation of the final steps up to the market-ready medicinal product pack.
Conclusion
A centrally located packaging site within the EU can help to shorten transport routes, reduce logistical interfaces and increase flexibility with regard to country-specific market requirements.
With the site in Traiskirchen, Complex Pharmaceuticals creates the infrastructural prerequisites for bringing storage, secondary packaging and shipping together in one place. In this way, we support pharmaceutical companies in designing efficient and reliable packaging processes, taking into account the high requirements for quality, documentation and product safety.
Are you looking for a contract packaging partner with a central location in Europe?