Ryan Kelly is the Interim Chief Executive Officer and Senior Director of Supply Chain Security & Brand Protection at Rx-360, an international, member-driven pharmaceutical supply chain consortium focused on patient safety, quality, and supply chain integrity. In this role, he leads cross-industry initiatives spanning joint audits, supply chain security, and quality oversight, and works closely with regulators, manufacturers, suppliers, and logistics partners to strengthen risk management across global supply networks.

Ryan Kelly, Rx360, explains how third-party audits and integrated quality-supply chain strategies protect pharma supply chains and patient safety.

Ryan Kelly on Smarter Pharma Supply Chain Audits

Ryan Kelly, interim CEO and senior director of supply chain security and brand protection at Rx360, discusses how the pharmaceutical industry is rethinking the relationship between quality and supply chain management in Part 1 of a two-part interview with 

A key part Rx360’s work involves third-party auditing, which Kelly argues offers a distinct advantage over internal audits. As he explains, "Sometimes if it's your own internal organization, it may be a little challenging to call a baby ugly." By coming in as an outside party, Rx360 can surface issues that might otherwise go unaddressed, remediate them through CAPA, and ultimately reduce how often audits need to happen. 

Kelly also spoke to a broader cultural shift underway in the industry. Traditionally, quality and supply chain have operated as separate functions, with quality focused on manufacturing and batch release and supply chain focused on logistics and execution. Rx360 is working to break down that divide. As Kelly states, "The way that I move product through the supply chain, maintaining temperature, maintaining visibility, maintaining control of that product all through the supply chain, that's gonna impact quality."

On the audit side, Kelly flagged a common blind spot: companies that believe they have supplier redundancy but actually don't. If a primary and secondary supplier are drawing from the same source, a single disruption can expose the entire supply chain. His advice is to map your supply chain thoroughly, understand every tier of your supplier base, and assess geographic, regional, financial, and logistical risks. Quality, he emphasizes, can't be added after the fact, it has to be designed in from the start.