Happy Holidays 2010

I want to thank everyone for reading and commenting on RxTrace in 2010 and wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.  Due to our family party schedule I don’t expect to post any more essays this year.

I’m planning to see a number of movies in the next few weeks with my wife, two daughters and son-in-law.  One of our favorite holiday activities is to debate which ones to see.  Debating with my kids is probably what it must be like debating with me, but in the end we all have fun and always have a lot to talk about (and Dad pays).

So drive carefully, don’t drink and drive and don’t eat too much.  On the other hand, do make peace with your family members, sing a lot, say thanks to members of our armed forces and give to charity.  And, OK, you can eat too much just once.

See you next year.

Do We Even Need To Mandate Drug Pedigrees Anymore?

  Important Notice To Readers of This Essay On November 27, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 into law. That act has many provisions, but one is to pre-empt all existing and future state serialization and pedigree laws like those that previously existed in California and Florida. Some or all of the information contained in this essay is about some aspect of one or more of those state laws and so that information is now obsolete. It is left here only for historical purposes for those wishing to understand those old laws and the industry’s response to them.

 

Drawing by Zsuzsanna Kilian

A CHALLENGE TO THE CURRENT CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

 

Currently well over half of the U.S. states have a drug pedigree law of some kind either on the books, in the process of being enacted or proposed in their legislature.  No two laws are exactly the same.  That fact is quite painful for the national participants in the supply chain and it gets a little worse every time a new law is enacted or a change is made to an existing law.  For this reason, the conventional wisdom among many supply chain participants, industry organizations, solution providers, and even the regulators themselves is that a nationwide pedigree law would be better than 50 different local laws.

Many of these entities are in favor of replacing those state laws with one administered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  I don’t challenge that.  In this essay, I’m challenging the very need for any U.S. pedigree requirement at all.  Let me explain. Continue reading Do We Even Need To Mandate Drug Pedigrees Anymore?

Writing Is Thinking. For Example, Ken Traub

Ken Traub

Noted writer, editor, literary critic and teacher, William Zinsser, is known for the quote “writing is thinking on paper”.  Today I don’t think paper has much to do with it, but what I think he means is, the very process of writing something forces a person to think about the thing they are writing about, and then embody that thinking clearly in the written output (paper or electronic).  As you might imagine, I agree with this.  I like to write and I believe that my own experience with writing has greatly improved my thinking.  For a really great essay on the topic of writing and thinking, see The Secret About Writing That No One Has The Balls To Tell You by Pete Michaud…and don’t miss the many excellent comments below his essay.

I’ve been writing about ideas surrounding my professional experience much longer than the year and a half I have been writing RxTrace.  In fact, I have written some pretty legendary emails and other essays over my career.  Legendary because they raised ideas that were either unpopular or otherwise not wanted by the recipient(s).  If you know me very well then chances are you’ve read one or two of those.

In a previous job, I did a fair amount of Continue reading Writing Is Thinking. For Example, Ken Traub

The Future of Traceability Repositories and Inventory Management Systems

Figure 1.

I think there is a significant difference between the traceability repositories we see on the market today and those that I think we are likely to see in the future.  Today, traceability repositories are typically implemented by software suppliers as standalone applications or modules that we end users refer to as “an EPCIS”.  We call it that because the most defining characteristic of these modules is that they implement GS1’s Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) standard.  Today, traceability repository vendors expect customers to buy their traceability module and integrate it with existing applications.  For a long time now I have felt that this approach was less than optimal and I think we will eventually see a switch occur in the software market toward existing application vendors adding traceability repositories and EPCIS interfaces as new features added to their existing functionality.  Let me explain. Continue reading The Future of Traceability Repositories and Inventory Management Systems

Certifications In A California-Compliant Drug Pedigree

Important Notice To Readers of This Essay On November 27, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 into law. That act has many provisions, but one is to pre-empt all existing and future state serialization and pedigree laws like those that previously existed in California and Florida. Some or all of the information contained in this essay is about some aspect of one or more of those state laws and so that information is now obsolete. It is left here only for historical purposes for those wishing to understand those old laws and the industry’s response to them.I’ve been involved in a number of conversations lately that included differing opinions about what will be necessary to “certify” a drug pedigree in California after their pedigree law goes into effect (2015-2017, depending on your role in the supply chain).  It’s a contentious issue, especially for those who wish that a distributed pedigree model would comply.

The California Law is fairly clear that the pedigree must contain, “A certification under penalty of perjury from a responsible party of the source of the dangerous drug that the information contained in the pedigree is true and accurate.”  And that, among a list of other things, it must include “…the name and address of each person certifying delivery or receipt of the dangerous drug.”

In the California language, a “dangerous drug” is Continue reading Certifications In A California-Compliant Drug Pedigree

Pedigree Will Change FOB Terms

Important Notice To Readers of This Essay On November 27, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 into law. That act has many provisions, but one is to pre-empt all existing and future state serialization and pedigree laws like those that previously existed in California and Florida. Some or all of the information contained in this essay is about some aspect of one or more of those state laws and so that information is now obsolete. It is left here only for historical purposes for those wishing to understand those old laws and the industry’s response to them.

fobIn the U.S., the initials FOB stand for “Freight On Board”.  “FOB…” is used here to establish which party, the buyer or seller, pays the shipping costs.  FOB terms are typically either “FOB Shipping Point“, which means the buyer must pay the shipping, or “FOB Destination“, which means the seller must pay the shipping costs.  The “FOB” terms of a given shipment of goods must be agreed to by the buyer and seller, either through a pre-negotiated contract, or through the seller’s acceptance of the terms spelled out in the buyer’s purchase order (PO).

If someone had told me even six months ago I’d be writing an essay about FOB terms I wouldn’t have believed them.  It seems like the most boring topic imaginable.  So what has led me to this boring topic?  Have I finally run out of things to write about? Continue reading Pedigree Will Change FOB Terms

Partnership For Safe Medicines Interchange 2010

Last Friday I attended the first annual Partnership For Safe Medicines (PSM)Interchange 2010 event.  PSM is a coalition of organizations that are committed to the safety of prescription drugs and protecting consumers against unapproved, counterfeit, substandard, mishandled or otherwise unsafe medicines.  PSM was started a few years ago to help educate healthcare professionals and the public about the dangers of counterfeit and other illegitimate drugs.  It is based in Vienna, VA but focuses on the problem globally.  The membership is made up of professional organizations from industry, universities and government.

PSM is led by a distinguished panel of leaders and directors.  The leaders are Continue reading Partnership For Safe Medicines Interchange 2010

Terminology: Track and Trace, and Pedigree

I don’t get paid for endorsements.  I don’t sell my opinion.  No one has my thoughts under their control.  So when I tell you that the Healthcare Distribution Management Association’s HDMA Track and Trace Seminar is my favorite pharmaceutical industry serialization and pedigree seminar every year, you should know that’s my honest opinion.  This year, the event will be held on November 8-10 in National Harbor, MD (just south of Washington DC).

BTW, This opinion wasn’t solicited and I am paying full (member) price to attend the event.  This isn’t an advertisement.  It’s what I believe.

It’s an event that is intensely focused on Continue reading Terminology: Track and Trace, and Pedigree