Market Overview

The domestic logistics services market size for medicines and medical equipment & materials (based on the sales at logistics service providers) for FY2021 rose by 6.4% to 117 billion yen. As the shipment volume of medicines and medical equipment as well as the rate of outsourcing to logistics services continued increasing, together with expansion in the range of contracted work processes, the market has shown steadfast growth, approximately 1.6 times larger than in FY2012.

Noteworthy Topics

In Medical Field, Temperature Management Monitoring is Also Important

Pharmaceutical logistics have drawn attention since FY2010, which increased those businesses fully engaging in it.

As the Japanese version of GDP (Good Distribution Practice) guideline for distribution of medicines was issued in December 2018 by MHLW, GDP-based quality control in distribution has become required also for medicines. Whether or not the distribution processes and logistics management appropriately conform to the guideline became critical factors to select outsourcing service providers.

The quality management is not only required during the delivery from pharmaceutical plants to medical wholesalers, but has extended to the temperature monitoring during the delivery to medical institutions. Therefore, the alliance between the logistics businesses and medical wholesalers has been in a spotlight, with actual alliance cases increasing.

Future Outlook

Finding and obtaining new customers are becoming limited in the market of logistics services for medicines and medical equipment. Still, the values of contract business are expanding, because extensive ranges of management have come to be needed, as can see from increase in products that need to be managed in low-temperatures.

In the peripheral of pharmaceutical logistics, there is a momentum to visualize the detailed distribution information using data platform. For the future, the system can develop into cross-industrial logistics, surpassing the ranges of product supply chains conforming to each company.

Research Outline