Resilience by Design: How Leaders Prepare Supply Chains for an Evolving Landscape

Frank Romanski, VP, Head of Strategic Growth and Global Pharma Solutions, Lonza Capsugel

© Lonza

In a market shaped by trade volatility, tighter regulatory expectations, and rising pressure to secure continuity of supply, leadership increasingly shows up in the systems people build and the decisions they empower others to make. In this CHEManager Leaders & Motivators interview, Frank Romanski, VP, Head of Strategic Growth and Global Pharma Solutions, Lonza Capsugel, reflects on how strategy becomes execution, what resilience demands from teams, and the leadership habits that help organizations stay steady when the environment isn’t.

CHEManager: US manufacturing has moved back to the center of strategic conversations. What do you see as the biggest drivers behind that shift — and what’s most often misunderstood about it?  

Frank Romanski: US manufacturing capacity has always been a strategic imperative for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. However, recent regulatory, trade, and industry-specific dynamics have increased the importance of maintaining a US footprint to support reliable supply and business continuity. 

Underlying this shift is a growing recognition of how vulnerable global supply chains can be—whether due to geopolitical dynamics, transportation, natural disasters or other external shocks. In the context of medicines, that vulnerability carries higher stakes because while there are certainly many things people can live without, medicine is not one of them. 

One of these drivers is the recent decision by the US Department of Commerce to issue final affirmative antidumping and countervailing duty determinations on hard empty capsules imported from China, Brazil, India, and Vietnam. These duties, which became enforceable in February 2026 in addition to existing tariffs, have reinforced the strong desire to have fair market pricing and sustainable manufacturing footprints in the US. As a result, we’ve seen several companies increase investment in the US to support long-term planning and continuity.

What is often misunderstood is that these shifts have implications for US pharmaceutical and biotech companies that go beyond near-term cost and availability of imported capsules. They also shape long-term planning and investment decisions, prompting companies to reassess supply chain structure, geographic exposure, and qualification timelines. In this environment, advance planning becomes critical, particularly for high-volume or late-stage programs. 

“Supply chain resilience” is discussed constantly but rarely defined clearly. From your perspective, what does resilience look like in practice — and which leadership decisions make the difference?