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Pharmaceutical Industry in Iran has difficulties such as inappropriate distribution, expired drugs and late drug delivery to patients. To overcome these issues and reach a sustainable development, the environmental and social aspects must be considered beside the economic aspects. In this paper, we address the Pharmaceutical distribution network and design a novel model that helps the distributing companies to decide strategic (determining the main and local distribution centers) and tactical decision (determining the flow) according to the three aspects of sustainability. The solution through the evolutionary algorithms presents the best selection of local distribution centers and the optimum amount of flow of medicine through the network with respect to three aspects of sustainability.  

In order to compete in the universal market, pharmaceutical companies must amend their competency. This coemption market needs to select the certain level of commitment for sustainability aspects to reach the sustainable supply chains. For this purpose, this study considers three aspects of sustainability (i.e. economical, environmental, and social pillars) to design the pharmaceutical distribution network. So, the model has three objective functions. The first function is to minimize the cost of transportation through the network, the second is to minimize the CO2 emissions through the network and the third is to maximize the job creation through the network. Carter and Rogers (2008) used the concept of ‘true sustainability’. They suggested that the consideration of environmental and social issues should be “coupled with economic objectives” and assist …