Reshoring Should Be Judged by Risk Removed, Not Factories Moved, Says RELEX’s Rohit Tripathi

Tariffs, policy incentives, and customer expectations are all pushing pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturers to rethink where they make their products. In the first part of a two-part interview with BioPharm International®, Rohit Tripathi, vice president of industry strategy, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing at RELEX Solutions, said the deeper

driver is resilience.

“I think it’s a combination, and the balance for that varies by company,” Tripathi said. “But the long-term motivation here is actually resilience for companies.”

Tripathi has a background in chemical engineering and has spent more than 25 years in supply chain planning software. He is particularly focused on how AI can be applied to supply chain planning.

What should biopharma companies weigh as trade policy and supply risks shift?

Tripathi said changing tariffs and policy incentives are reshaping the financial case for domestic manufacturing, and US patients want reliable access to critical medicines. Companies have also seen “how quickly trade disputes, geopolitical events, transportation problems can disrupt supply,” he said. He pointed to RELEX’s 2026 State of the Supply Chain report, in which 86% of supply chain leaders said tariffs or trade policy changes had already affected their operations. The findings came from a January 2026 survey of 514 leaders across retail, manufacturing, wholesale, and supply chain.

For that reason, Tripathi argued that reshoring should be judged by how much supply chain risk it removes, “not by how many factories move closer to home.”

Trade agreements add another layer of uncertainty. The US declined to renew USMCA in its current form at the agreement’s first six-year joint review on July 1, 2026. The agreement remains in force through July 2036 but is now subject to annual reviews. “That’s a real mismatch between trade policy timelines and manufacturing commitments,” Tripathi said.

For biologics, he noted, transferring production requires process validation, comparability work, and regulatory submissions. “Companies cannot go back and revise manufacturing networks each time the needle on the trade discussion moves one way or the other,” he said. Instead, he expects greater attention to flexible contracts, qualified alternative sources where feasible, and scenario planning before major capital commitments. “Understanding these dependencies will matter much more [than] knowing the final location of the manufacturing,” he said.

Telling a short-term blip from a lasting change starts with the distinction between execution and planning. “A temporary disruption changes how you execute your plan, but a structural disruption changes that plan itself,” Tripathi said. If an airport closes for two days, a company may reroute through a qualified transportation lane, adjust inventory allocations, or reschedule production. A structural shift requires changing the economics of the network itself. Examples include persistent increases in fuel or chemical prices, or repeated supplier failures from a region that provides more than 60% of a generic medicine’s starting material.

The signals he watches include supplier performance, lead time variability, freight and insurance costs, and raw material prices. Above all, he watches recovery time. “What’s your recovery time of your supply chain after the disruption, because that to me is a measure of resilience,” he said.

About the Speaker

Rohit Tripathi, VP of Industry Strategy, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Manufacturing at RELEX

Rohit Tripathi specializes in supply chain operations, business transformation and applying AI to improve planning, resilience and operational performance. His work at RELEX includes helping manufacturers, including those managing complex, temperature-sensitive supply chains in industries such as pharmaceuticals, strengthen planning and visibility amid disruption. With more than 25 years of global experience across the U.S., India, Brazil and Europe, Rohit has led international teams delivering AI-enabled solutions for supply chain, IoT and customer experience.