As global trade policies shift and compliance pressures mount, pharma supply chains are being tested.

DJ Jeyaprakasam who is principal solutions architect at ORO Labs explains how orchestration is helping drugmakers stay agile, compliant, and ready for the next disruption.

The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to complexity – but in 2025, procurement and supply chain leaders are facing a level of volatility that many systems were never built to handle. Tariff hikes, trade disputes, localized sourcing mandates, and evolving global regulations are forcing organizations to rethink how they manage suppliers, costs, and compliance.

At the same time, the stakes are high. A sourcing delay or regulatory misstep doesn’t just impact budgets – it can stall trials, disrupt production, and delay patient access to life-saving treatments.

To navigate this environment, leading pharma companies are turning to orchestration — a technology approach that unifies procurement, legal, compliance, and supplier operations into a single, connected workflow. But what does orchestration really look like in practice? And why is it gaining traction now?

Discover Pharma spoke with DJ, to explore how orchestration is helping pharmaceutical companies prepare for uncertainty, improve decision-making, and stay audit-ready in a world defined by constant change.

What are the most pressing risks pharmaceutical companies face today due to shifting tariffs and trade policies?

The two biggest risks are cost volatility and compliance complexity. Pharma companies rely heavily on tariff-sensitive imports like Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), excipients, and packaging materials from regions like China, India, and Mexico. When tariffs rise, input costs spike — and those increases ripple across the supply chain, impacting budgets, timelines, and patient access.

Switching suppliers to manage costs isn’t easy in pharma. It triggers a cascade of compliance requirements — FDA approvals, HIPAA considerations, data governance, and ethical sourcing checks. The bigger issue isn’t choosing to switch, but executing that change across siloed teams. Without tight coordination between procurement, compliance, and legal, even small supplier shifts can slow development, invite audit risks, or create compliance gaps.

In your experience, how well-prepared is the pharma industry to adapt to sudden changes in global supply chain costs?

Not very. While some pharma companies are modernizing, most still rely on fragmented data, manual workflows, and compliance processes that don’t keep up with real-time sourcing changes. When costs shift, teams often can’t see their exposure fast enough — let alone act on it.

Even small cost changes can delay sourcing, create compliance risks, or lead to budget overruns. Some forward-looking companies are moving toward integrated platforms that provide real-time visibility into cost, supplier status, and regulatory flags. But overall, readiness is uneven — especially across mid-sized and emerging firms.

How does orchestration differ from traditional procurement software, and why is it especially relevant now?

Traditional procurement tools handle transactions — sourcing, POs, contracts, invoices — often in disconnected systems. Today, many companies are moving away from monolithic platforms to a mix of specialized tools that serve specific needs better. But this creates new challenges: fragmented systems, siloed data, and a lack of integration between upstream and downstream processes.

Orchestration solves this by connecting the full sourcing lifecycle — supplier onboarding, compliance checks, approvals, risk management, and execution — into a single, real-time workflow. It bridges gaps between tools, teams, and data, giving procurement the visibility and control to drive faster, more informed decisions. Especially in pharma, where every step must meet strict regulatory standards, orchestration turns disjointed processes into a cohesive, agile operation.

For pharma, this shift is critical. Tariff spikes, AI rules, and data security mandates can’t be managed in isolation. Orchestration gives teams a unified view across sourcing, legal, and compliance, enabling faster, policy-aligned decisions. Instead of stitching together siloed tools, companies get a connected, adaptable workflow built for today’s pace of change.

How does orchestration help pharma companies bridge gaps between sourcing, pricing, compliance, and supplier management?

In pharma, procurement isn’t linear — pricing impacts compliance, supplier choice affects data security, and every decision has regulatory implications. But most companies still manage these functions in silos.

Orchestration connects them in a single, end-to-end workflow. Teams can evaluate cost, risk, and compliance together — in real time. For example, if tariffs increase API costs, procurement can instantly assess alternatives, run risk checks, update contracts, and stay aligned with regulations — all in one system.

This eliminates disconnects between sourcing, legal, and compliance, speeding up decisions and reducing costly gaps.

The biggest shift: disruptions are no longer exceptions — they’re the new normal. The companies that navigated the last few years best weren’t necessarily the biggest — they were the most agile. They had visibility across their supplier base, cross-functional coordination, and the ability to act fast.

Today, preparedness isn’t just about having backup plans. It’s about responding in real time when suppliers fail, costs spike, or regulations shift. That’s why more procurement teams are moving away from siloed tools and toward connected systems that enable faster decisions, better risk management, and real-time collaboration.

It’s a mindset shift — from contingency planning to continuous adaptability — and it’s redefining how procurement operates.

Are there particular drug categories or ingredients that are especially vulnerable to tariff shocks?

Yes, generics and common APIs are among the most exposed. Many of these ingredients come from high-risk geographies where tariff policies can change with little notice. Because generics specifically operate on thinner margins, even small price shifts can disrupt profitability and supply continuity.

How are leading pharma firms using orchestration to improve speed and agility in sourcing critical components?

Leading pharma firms are replacing manual, slow-moving processes with orchestration-driven workflows that move fast and stay compliant. When a tariff hike hits a key supplier, the system can instantly flag the risk, suggest alternatives, trigger approvals, run risk checks, and update compliance records — all in real time.

What used to take days of back-and-forth across teams now happens in hours. This agility is critical in pharma, where sourcing delays can impact trial timelines, production schedules, and regulatory deadlines. Orchestration keeps teams ahead of those risks and accelerates decision-making when it matters most.

What role does automation play in reducing manual workarounds and compliance risks across international markets?

Automation plays a critical role in bringing consistency, speed, and enforcement to global procurement operations. In today’s regulatory climate, where rules can change overnight across different jurisdictions, manual processes simply can’t keep up.

Orchestration platforms automate compliance by embedding regulatory logic into every step of the procurement workflow. When a tariff shifts or a new regulation is introduced, the system applies updates instantly across all sourcing activities without relying on manual intervention.

That includes enforcing region-specific data privacy rules, updating supplier certifications, flagging restricted components, and rerouting purchases to pre-approved vendors. Instead of waiting for legal or compliance teams to catch up, automation makes compliance the default.

This is especially important in pharma, where international markets each carry unique standards for drug ingredients, patient data protection, and clinical sourcing. Automation ensures those requirements are applied proactively and uniformly, eliminating risky workarounds and protecting the organization from costly delays, audit findings, or regulatory penalties.

Can you share any examples or case studies where orchestration helped a pharma company avoid significant supply disruption?

Yes — we’ve worked with several global pharma leaders to implement orchestration strategies that directly reduced supply risk and improved operational control.

One example: streamlining supplier onboarding. We helped a pharma giant automate and standardize their onboarding process across regions, ensuring faster time-to-engage with suppliers while embedding compliance checks and documentation steps from day one. What once took weeks of back-and-forth was reduced to days — without compromising on control.

Another major initiative: building a fraud detection layer into banking detail changes. Our orchestrated process includes integrated checks using LexisNexis, Neium, SEON etc. As part of supplier onboarding and banking detail changes, the system automatically runs risk and compliance validations — including watchlist screening, business verification, and fraud detection — ensuring only trusted partners enter the supply chain.

We also guided users to the right sourcing channels, helping teams choose between catalog purchases, strategic sourcing, or guided buying — based on item type, value, and risk profile — all embedded into the request flow.

Finally, we integrated Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) processes directly into sourcing workflows. Risk assessments, policy requirements, and approvals were handled upfront, ensuring procurement, legal, and compliance teams worked off the same data — and the same timeline.

All of this reduced delays, prevented blind spots, and helped our pharma clients build resilient, audit-ready procurement operations.

Looking ahead, what regulatory or trade developments should procurement leaders in pharma be preparing for now?

Procurement teams should be watching three fronts: U.S. tariff strategy, global AI governance, and regional data privacy laws. We’re seeing increasing pressure to localize sourcing, enforce data transparency, and align with new standards like the EU AI Act or updated FDA and HIPAA rules.

The priority for procurement teams should be building adaptive systems that allow procurement to track regulatory changes in real time and enforce policy updates at scale. That includes contract flexibility, automated audit trails, and integrated supplier governance.

The pharma sector no longer has room for reactive planning. Regulatory expectations are tightening, and the speed of change is increasing. Procurement leaders need systems that don’t just react; they must anticipate, adapt, and enforce compliance by design. Those that continue relying on manual oversight or fragmented tools will struggle to keep pace and stay audit-ready in a landscape defined by constant disruption.