The HDA Bar Code Quick Start Guide For Meeting The DSCSA And Other FDA Regulations

HDA logoThe Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) (formerly HDMA) published their highly anticipated “Guidelines for Bar Coding in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Quick Start Guide” a few weeks ago.  Do yourself a favor and stop reading this essay right now, click on the link and download your copy and read it.  It is free, and it is essential reading for manufacturers and solution providers who expect to develop and deploy solutions that ship serialized units and cases of prescription drugs to U.S. wholesale distributors.  This includes solutions that Continue reading The HDA Bar Code Quick Start Guide For Meeting The DSCSA And Other FDA Regulations

Product Identification And National Registration Codes

iStock_000090544423_smallerThere is a long-running tug-of-war going on between GS1 and national governments around the world over how exactly to identify medical products, whether devices or pharmaceuticals.  National governments regulate those products to maximize the health of their citizens and so they take a natural interest in how they are identified.  They want to eliminate all ambiguity between products within their market.  They need to be able to tightly grant market authorization, revoke it and oversee recalls when warranted.  To do that effectively, they need a way of clearly and concisely referencing a given product.  That same way of referencing the product should also be used for patient education and for healthcare professional prescribing.  Bad things happen when mistakes are made in the identification of healthcare products.

GS1 offers a global standard way of identifying Continue reading Product Identification And National Registration Codes

FDA Plans Busy Second Half of 2016 With Six DSCSA Draft Guidances Expected

FDALogoLast week the US FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) published an update to their guidance agenda for calendar 2016.  Originally published in January, this is the mid-year update, when the CDER has a shorter window to think about and, presumably, can be more accurate.  What has changed since January?  The number of Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)-related draft guidance they expect to publish by year end remains the same, as reported by our friends at the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS).

In fact, according to RAPS, those same six draft guidances were Continue reading FDA Plans Busy Second Half of 2016 With Six DSCSA Draft Guidances Expected

Who Will Enforce The DSCSA 2017 Serialization Mandate?

Last week I listened in on a Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) call hosted by one of the Big-3 U.S. wholesale distributors.  It was a well-run call that included several presentations and a Q&A session.  Several times the question was discussed about whether or not the wholesale distributor would accept non-serialized product in the time between November 27, 2017 and November 27, 2019. Continue reading Who Will Enforce The DSCSA 2017 Serialization Mandate?

China Adds Traceability Requirement To CFDA Drug Quality Management Specification

CFDA.logoEveryone who markets drugs in China has been watching for the publication of revised requirements for tracing drugs there since the government apparently suspended their previous requirements earlier this year.  Interpreting Chinese government announcements is very hard to do.  Even knowing for sure exactly what has been suspended about the previous regulation is very difficult.  Google Translate does a poor job of making Chinese understandable enough to provide me with confidence.

With all that said, a few weeks ago a notice appeared Continue reading China Adds Traceability Requirement To CFDA Drug Quality Management Specification