ALK will improve efficiency by strengthening its competencies and structures as well as simplifying processes – particularly within Product Supply, which in future will work more closely with Sales & Marketing to support ALK's commercial objectives.
The goal in Product Supply is to improve ALK's gross margin, while across the whole organisation, ALK will identify and free up resources which can be reallocated to better support the strategic growth initiatives.
Key initiatives:
- ALK will accelerate product rationalisation to focus on products that are both cost effective to produce and allow ALK to benefit from the regulation-led market consolidation. By reducing overall workloads, rationalisation will also improve the efficiency and robustness of ALK's product supply.
- ALK will maintain and invest in a slimmer range of SCIT and SLIT-drops to ensure allergy sufferers and prescribers have a comprehensive range of AIT treatment options available to them.
- Work to improve the robustness of product supply continues and, in the short term, ALK will continue to operate with temporary supply constraints while upgrades take place. Robust inventories will be gradually rebuilt during 2018.
- Reducing scrappage, increasing production yield – particularly for the house dust mite tablet – improving the efficiency of production processes and the overall manufacturing flow, as well as assessing the potential for increased automation.
- Continued de-prioritising of activities that fall outside ALK's strategic priorities and a streamlining of the organisation accordingly:
- R&D will focus on life-cycle management of the current pipeline as well as supporting the introduction of complementary products and services to optimise AIT outcomes for patients.
- Product Supply, working with Commercial Operations, will accelerate product rationalisation and improve the efficiency and robustness of ALK's supply operations.
- Work to streamline administrative processes and functions will continue.
- Efforts across the organisation will focus on ensuring functions are the right size, with the right competences, while any freed up resources will be reallocated in support of the long-term growth strategy.
- Transforming ALK's company culture into one that supports the ambition of being relevant to more patients by embracing change, agility, empowerment and decisive prioritisation.
The updated strategy – which builds upon ALK's successful European business and recent investments in North America – places succeeding with the tablet portfolio at its core, and has four key components: 1) Establish and succeed in North America; 2) Complete the tablet portfolio for all relevant ages; 3) Patient engagement systems and adjacent business; and 4) Optimise and reallocate ALK's resources.
