Operational and Sourcing Upgrades Boost Company Performance, Support Product Launch | Life Sciences

3/21/2025

RRD's comprehensive solution helps biopharma company optimize their workflow, reporting, and customer relations

CHALLENGE

A U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company, which develops and commercializes therapies for patients with rare diseases, was experiencing multiple challenges with their current supplier. The supplier was not sending patient communications in a timely manner; was not reporting or kitting product correctly; and was falling behind on ship-out dates. In addition, exorbitant and unexpected shipping charges were occurring because the supplier was sourcing items from China without the company’s knowledge.

Extremely dedicated to their patient-first philosophy and mission, the company was concerned that their supplier’s lack of transparency and substandard performance would derail their upcoming product launch — and their business as a whole.

SOLUTION

Due to their reputation for quality, the pharma company entrusted RRD to help them solve these challenges.

RRD’s dedicated life sciences team met with the company to understand their goals and concerns, gather intelligence, and offer an indepth presentation of their capabilities, technologies, and infrastructure. One of the first steps the team took was to deploy RRD’s ConnectOne Storefront^℠ web-to-print ordering portal.

Following integration of Storefront, RRD also partnered with the company to:

Establish a unified company workflow comprising project management, warehouse inventory management, agency engagement, print production, and more
Provide customized, transparent reporting — weekly inventory reports, bi-monthly budget reports, and monthly compliance reports (including costs for sourced items)
Integrate a patient-communication platform to create, test, and automate CRM strategies
Initiate a new fulfillment/distribution process, comprising product storage, inventory/item expiration management, and kitting
?Integrate with ?the company's ?c?ontent management tool to capture? key data including item owner and item expiration date? information, pulling that data into RRD's inventory and fulfillment core systems

RESULTS

As the pharma company readied their launch of a new product, RRD’s dedicated life sciences service team collaborated with them to establish an integrated workflow; incorporate a Storefront ordering portal and patient-communication platform; initiate a customized and transparent reporting system; set up fulfillment/distribution for product storage and inventory/kitting; and integrate with the company’s content management tool and data.

Spotlighting a few impactful results:

RRD alerted the company to a problem with an inadequate design in previously supplied PPV boxes, resulting in glass vials breaking during preparation for shipment to customers. To address the situation, RRD designed and produced a sturdier box engineered to securely contain the vials while in transit — ensuring their safe arrival.
For the company’s “Getting Started” kits, RRD discovered that the ingredients label on a clear soap component did not actually match its composition. RRD’s research led to a list of the correct ingredients, which were provided to the company for PRC review and for label updating. RRD sourced a majority of the kits’ items and produced the box — the company was able to realize a 20% savings with RRD sourcing the kits’ components.
Achieved 99% SLA order fulfillment within the first 6 months of the new partnership, improving upon the previous results.
Produced letters and kits for the company’s patient service program.
RRD has become a one-stop partner for the company, providing them with a variety of operational as well as sourcing needs.