“Perfection is the Enemy of Good”
By Martin VanTrieste
I made this simple statement during a presentation last year, based on Voltaire’s quote “the perfect is the enemy of good,” to explain the importance of moving swiftly to protect patients, and it has since become a mantra of Rx-360.
But what does it mean exactly?
Far too many times in our business, we strive for the perfect solution when a suitable solution already exists that solves 80 to 90% of our problems, and is right in front of our eyes.
One of the key functions of Rx-360 is to adopt best practices and standards that already exist and not to write new standards. Doing this allows us to leverage existing knowledge and experience and move more quickly to implement a solution.
For example, IPEC has developed a set of GMPs for excipient manufacturers, standards for quality agreements, good distribution practices, etc. The more of us in industry that endorse and adopt these best practices, the faster we can:
- Inform our suppliers of our expectations related to best practices
- “Level the playing field” for suppliers who are compliant with those expectations
- Reduce the risk of economically motivated adulterated raw material. The FDA has recently defined the term economically motivated adulteration to mean the intentional dilution or substituting of a material with one that is less expensive in order to make a profit.
As a result, we can then focus our efforts on:
- Providing education on these best practices
- Holding everyone accountable to following these best practices
- Focusing our efforts on areas where no best practice exists
I agree that not every best practice available will be best for each situation, every time. However, I do know from experience that the drive for perfection could take years if not a decade to achieve, if perfection could ever be achieved at all. I also know from my experience that an 80% solution implemented with a sense of urgency will significantly decrease the risk within the supply chain.
As a patient who has benefited from medication myself, the son of patients, and the father of patients, I urge us to implement the solutions available today as swiftly as possible. If patients lose confidence in their medications, many will stop taking and administering medication, creating an entirely new set of risks for us all.