A Q&A with Jonathan Callaghan, Supply Chain Director at Accord UK
Sustainable and reliable medicines are essential for effective patient care, and pharmacists and dispensing doctors depend on them to support their patients’ health. Jonathan Callaghan, Supply Chain Director at Accord UK, shares his insights into how Accord’s UK manufacturing capabilities and commitment to supply chain resilience ensure that healthcare professionals have access to the medicines they need, with a focus on sustainability and reliability.
Can you give an overview of Accord’s UK manufacturing capabilities? How have these developed over recent years? How does this support pharmacists and dispensing doctors?
Accord has a significant manufacturing, distribution, and testing footprint, covering 18 sites overall, with six holding EU/UK GMP approvals. Among these, seven sites, including those in Barnstaple (North Devon) and Fawdon (Newcastle upon Tyne), serve as key hubs for manufacturing, testing, and distribution across Europe and the UK. The company’s national distribution centre in Didcot provides seamless onward distribution of medicines to pharmacies and dispensing doctors.
The Barnstaple site specialises in solid oral dose manufacturing and packing, with additional capabilities for producing pessaries, including a small number of controlled drugs.
Meanwhile, the Fawdon facility focuses on effervescent products, device assembly, and bulk tablet packing. With a fully integrated UK supply chain, Accord is able to maintain shorter lead times, reduce environmental impact through minimised logistics miles, and enhance supply reliability.
All of Accord’s manufacturing sites mentioned above operate on 100% renewable electricity, reinforcing Accord’s commitment to sustainability.
How many medicines are typically produced from Accord’s UK factories each year, and where are they supplied?
Accord has two UK manufacturing sites and the largest manufacturer-owned warehousing and distribution centre in the UK Accord plays a major role in medicine supply. Each year, our factories manufacture and pack approximately six billion tablets and assemble over 10.6 million devices. This makes Accord responsible for nearly 10% of all medicines supplied to the NHS, ensuring a steady flow of essential treatments to healthcare professionals and patients across the country. Additionally, we are expanding our reach by supplying a growing number of speciality medicines beyond the UK.
Can you tell us about Accord’s R&D activities?
When people think about generic and biosimilar medicines ‘innovation’ might not spring to mind, but actually innovation is at the core of everything we do.
We have over 560 scientists worldwide dedicated to advancing product development in small molecules, biologics, cell, and gene therapy. We have one of the most active launch programmes in the European generics sector, identifying opportunities in branded, added-value products, new chemical entities, and new biologic entities.
Our biosimilar development activities are based at our Harrow site, focusing on upstream, downstream, and analytical development. We are also investing in new technology evaluation to enhance product understanding and benchmarking.
What improvements have been made to the process of better forecasting and projecting to ensure a reliable supply of medicines to key markets?
Accord works closely and in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care reviewing UK supply chain resilience and monitoring product shortages with the clear aim to ensure patients have access to the medicines they need.
Demand for certain medicines can spike at any time and can be caused by several factors. To mitigate such peaks and troughs, we use sophisticated forecasting, replenishment and scheduling technology to align to UK market requirements, factoring in key planning variables such as seasonality. We are always looking at opportunities to enhance supply chain resilience utilising dual sourcing of API’s and key components/excipients, technology developments (like AI), as well as strategic partnerships with contract manufacturers and suppliers.
UK manufacturing fits neatly into our global network and makes use of the synergies and stability that this provides. As well as manufacturing products from scratch we also import a number of products in bulk format allowing us the flexibility to pack stock in line with UK demand. Accord is a fully-owned subsidiary of Intas Pharmaceuticals, a multinational pharmaceutical company founded in 1977 by an Indian pharmacist whose family continues to have a majority share in the business.
As well as manufacturing sites in the UK, Accord is lucky to have the support of dedicated QC lab facilities in Fawdon and Barnstaple. There is a strong pipeline of products for the UK market, and we have R&D sites in Harrow as well as a head office/QC lab facility opening in Stockley Park very shortly.
Conclusion
We understand how important it is for community pharmacists and dispensing doctors to have reliable access to the medicines they need to care for their patients. Through ongoing investment in UK manufacturing, R&D, and supply chain resilience, we aim to provide the healthcare community with a sustainable supply of essential medicines. By embracing new technology and nurturing strong partnerships, we continue to adapt our processes to support the needs of the NHS and the broader healthcare system, ensuring that patients receive the treatments they need when they need them.
Source
Accord data on file Date of Access: March 2025
Date of prep: March 2025 UK-Gen-NP-01531
