The annual Supply Chain Summit was held by Life Sciences Pennsylvania (LSPA).

The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) recently attended a summit held by the state of Pennsylvania’s largest trade association for the life sciences industry.

The annual Supply Chain Summit, held by Life Sciences Pennsylvania (LSPA), provided crucial knowledge and strategies about handling industry supply chain needs, and how to create and maintain a supply chain that will support the demands of life science companies

“This knowledge will help us focus recruitment activity in one of our target industry sectors,” said Doug Warfel, LVEDC Business Recruitment and Lending.

LVEDC Business Recruitment and Lending Doug Warfel

“It will also help us work with companies inside and outside the Lehigh Valley to leverage their supply chain and related operations for outreach,” he said. “Those are key initiatives of our organization as identified by our three-year strategic plan.”

Warfel was one of more than 100 people who attended the summit, which was held Nov. 16, at the Sheraton Valley Forge Hotel in King of Prussia, Pa.

The mission of LSPA is to ensure Pennsylvania is the U.S. hub for the life sciences by creating a business and public policy environment which fosters life sciences growth and success.

Life science research and manufacturing has been identified as one of four target sectors of the Lehigh Valley economy, in part due to the region’s central location, proximity to major U.S. Northeast markets, well-developed transportation infrastructure, strong workforce, and availability of adequate water and sewer lines to industrial sites.

Formerly known as Pennsylvania Bio, LSPA was founded in 1989 by two Penn State University researchers, and today has grown to represent the entire life sciences industry, from medical device and pharmaceutical companies, to investment organizations and research institutions

The Supply Chain Summit helped provide a better understanding of the wants and needs of companies the life sciences industry from a supply chain perspective, as well as the supply chain networks in the industry that allows for target marketing efforts towards companies for potential investment in Lehigh Valley, Warfel said.

The event was attended by representatives of multiple life sciences companies and included a series of presentations and panel discussions by professionals from biopharmaceutical firms, consultants, real estate professionals, and corporate supply chain strategists.

It included a discussion about trade and tariff implications led by Evan Falconer, Trade & Customs Advisory Services Advisor with FedEx Trade Networks, and Brian Schneider, Worldwide Sales Manager with FedEx Healthcare Solutions.

Additionally, a discussion was held about cell and gene therapy panel with representatives from the companies Adaptimmune, Fisher BioServices, GSK, and Spark Therapeutics, and a closing keynote speech was delivered by Bill Covaleski, Founder & Brewmaster with Victory Brewing Company.

Among the other presenters were Jonathan Patroni and Mani Sundararajan, both Vice Presidents with Shire, a global specialty biopharmaceutical company; and Diarmuid O’Riordan and Matthew Gilfillan of Ping Asset, a cloud-based data storage service.