Analyst Insight: Over the next few years, numerous new regulations are coming into effect worldwide, requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, dispensers and others up and down the chain to build serialization, verification, and traceability into their supply chains. While there is tremendous potential ROI and added value from these investments, right now all the focus is on the race to comply before the deadlines hit. Those who get there first will likely have a head start in finding additional value from these newfound capabilities. - Bill McBeath, Chief Research Officer, ChainLink Research

As pharmaceutical companies have expanded target markets and outsourced production over the last decade, the supply chain has become increasingly global, virtual and vulnerable. As a result, counterfeit activity is thriving - and patients have suffered and died from counterfeit and contaminated drugs.

IAG Cargo has added three routes to its service in Latin America. Beginning in the summer of 2016, the carrier will operate direct flights from London Gatwick to San Jose, Costa Rica and Lima, Peru.

The times they are a changin' for the players across pharmaceutical supply chains, from API suppliers to CMOs, to manufacturers, packagers, distributors, dispensers/pharmacies ... just about everyone across the chain.

In 2011, batches of a cancer medication called Avastin, on their way to U.S. doctors from Canada, were found to contain no active ingredients. They were counterfeit - a rarity on U.S. soil. While no patient ever received the drugs, the fact that a potentially life-threatening counterfeit was able to make it to the U.S. shocked the pharmaceutical industry. It pointed to a growing trend - triggered by the rise of e-commerce and globalization - reaching the United States.