For a few years now, China has been building a library of documents that define standards for traceability, but no dates have appeared in any of them (see “China Adds Traceability Requirement To CFDA Drug Quality Management Specification”, “China Posts New Draft Pharma Serialization Guidelines”, “China: NMPA Drug Traceability Guidance”, “China Commits To The Digital Future In Healthcare, Including Pharma Traceability” and “China Inches Closer To Another Pharma Serialization Mandate”).  In a new posting on their website yesterday, the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) provided a notice of aggressive deadlines for vaccine traceability.  Let’s take a look at it because a vaccine traceability mandate is probably a herald of a near-term future pharmaceutical traceability mandate.