Distribution
Distribution is one of the core activities of the ELC. In 2005 nearly 100,000 shipments found their way to hospitals, wholesalers and pharmacies in Europe and to a growing number of new territories like the Middle East, Africa and Australia. A state of the art, non paper-based system is used to achieve high levels of accuracy and speed. All orders received are processed and sent out the same day.
Production and Package Development
The ELC production department runs several lines to label and pack the different products we provide to our patients. These lines are each configured to deal with vials, syringes, blister packs or SureClick™ pre-filled pens. Over 12 million units have been labeled and packed here in 2005 into over 6 million packs of our products: Aranesp®, Neulasta® and Neupogen®The estimated 660 different packaging configurations handled by the ELC in 2006, translate to over 2000 different packs, inserts, labels etc.
Quality and Regulatory Compliance
Ensuring quality is one of our core values. Unknown to many, our Quality and Regulatory Compliance departments provide crucial support in the realization of product quality, import testing and product release. They are also critical in executing the function of the ELC as marketing authorization holder for our products in Europe.
Customer Service
For most countries the ELC provides Customer Service support in accepting and processing incoming orders for our products. The Customer Service team covers Europe in over 15 languages in order to provide efficient but mainly high quality services to customers. Dealing with transportation and - as our territory expands -import/export issues is another important aspect of the work performed at the ELC.
European Shared Service Center Finance
Accounting is the language of business. At the European Shared Service Center accounting is conducted in many languages, since financial support is being provided for most of the European affiliates. Activities performed here range from cash management and treasury to accounts receivable, and from accounts payable to general accounting and auditing. All purchases Amgen makes in Europe are funneled through these people for accounting and payment.
Information Systems (IS)
In this day and age Information Systems cannot be considered anything other than core for a human therapeutics company. Systems help us process and deliver our products, but they also provide the network required to communicate both internally and to the outside world. Around 90 IS-professionals work at - or from - the ELC to maintain our networks 24 hours a day, so that we are ready to anticipate and deal with any potential disruptions in our collaboration with colleagues in the US.
Planning and Inventory Control
Growing demand for Amgen’s products requires accurate forecasting, tight planning and flexibility. Certainly keeping inventory provides for some buffer. The fact that inventory is not in itself the solution to all our supply challenges (and is costly) is something that Production planning and inventory Controls have to deal with on an ongoing basis. Together with Strategic Resource Planning, Planning and Inventory Control are also engaged in forecasting to make sure that both growth and our ‘pipeline’ products can be effectively managed at the ELC, both now and in the years to come.
Clinical Supply Chain Management
In 2005 the ELC shipped close to 50% of all Amgen’s global clinical shipments. Now over 1000 shipments per month are delivered to researchers in Europe and beyond.
