Pharmaceutical 3Pl Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Pharmaceutical 3Pl Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The biopharmaceutical 3PL market is expected to register a CAGR of more than 7%. The rising trend of outsourcing logistics, the focus of pharmaceutical players on their distribution networks due to their strong sales numbers, and the rise in the number of biosimilar launches are some of the key factors driving the market.

The COVID-19 outbreak also had a major impact on global logistics in part due to reduced air freight capacity and reduced workforce at airports, ports, and warehouses. Small players in the biopharmaceutical third-party logistics market were hit severely as they usually do not have any recovery, backup, or intermittent operation plan.

Technological advancements are also one of the key factors driving the adoption of temperature management logistic services. Technologies such as warehouse robotics, mobile cloud solutions, data mining, and real-time monitoring have changed the overall logistics industry to a great extent. According to a global survey carried out in July 2021, cold chain services are important to third-party logistics providers (3PLs). More than 62% of 3PL service providers believe cold chain services are critically important for the future growth of their business.

In 2020, the warehousing and storage segment dominated the market for biopharmaceutical third-party logistics (3PL) and held the largest revenue share of 43.6%. This is attributed to a large demand for 3PL services from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. To reduce the operating costs and the company’s overheads, the life sciences companies are opting for third-party logistic services.

With a surge in demand, the service providers have enhanced their offerings with many value-added services, such as warehousing and packaging. Moreover, to minimize the hassle and reduce the turnaround time, the providers have installed barcode scanners and robots for picking and aligning the products from distant locations.

Pharmaceutical companies pay a lot of attention to packaging quality in terms of purity, uniformity, shelf-life, integrity, and packaging standard of their products. This is expected to boost the market over the forecast period. The 3PL service providers are investing a lot in providing value-added services, which is another key market driver. For instance, Expeditors, a service-based provider of value-added services ranging from simple to complex, offers a range of logistics delivery models that enhance customer services while mitigating transportation and inventory costs. Growing pharmaceutical industries are also driving the market. According to industry sources, in 2021, most of the demand was generated from North America (mainly from United States), followed by Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

North America dominated the biopharmaceutical third-party logistics (3PL) market and accounted for the largest revenue share of 41.5% in 2020. This is majorly attributed to the dominance of the region in the biologics and pharmaceutical drugs market and an increase in exports and imports of biopharmaceuticals.

Furthermore, owing to high healthcare expenditure, the adoption of advanced technologies is quite high in the region. Thus, for the improvement of warehousing and transportation, North America-based pharmaceutical companies are relying more on 3PL service providers, which is driving the regional growth. Additionally, the presence of major players is also responsible for the growth of the market for biopharmaceutical third-party logistics (3PL) in the region.

Moreover, in Asia-Pacific, the market for biopharmaceutical third-party logistics (3PL) witnessed the second-largest revenue of USD 15.4 billion in 2020, and it is also expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 7.2% over the forecast period. The growing demand for medicines among the aging population, adoption of technologically advanced services, and growing economic conditions in emerging countries such as China, Japan, and India are among the few factors responsible for its fastest growth rate.

Furthermore, due to the increased demand for healthcare, the pharmaceutical sector continues to grow, in turn, resulting in the growth of the 3PL market. Global pharmaceutical sales grew by 7.7% in 2021. In addition, in 2021, established markets saw an average revenue increase of 6.4%, and emerging markets' revenue grew by 11.9%. United States, Japan, China, Germany, and France are the world’s top five pharmaceutical markets in terms of 2021 sales. In 2021, United States had 46.8% of global sales.

The market for biopharmaceutical third-party logistics (3PL) is fragmented, with the presence of a large number of players. This fragmentation causes hindrances for big players to enter a few countries across the world. Thus, the big players are undergoing consolidation that will help them accept modern technologies from small or regional players and expand their global presence.

Companies such as FedEx, DHL, and DB Schenker are a few of the renowned companies in the pharmaceutical 3PL market across the world.

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