All posts by Dirk Rodgers

Dirk is the founder of RxTrace where he writes regularly on the intersection between the pharmaceutical supply chain, track and trace technology, standards and regulatory compliance. He has written hundreds of essays on those specific topics. A logical thinker, Dirk is skilled at making complex technical topics understandable to non-technical readers and listeners. An Electrical and Computer Engineer by education, Dirk has worked as a consultant, software architect and automation engineer during a career spanning 30 years. Overall, Dirk's thought leadership has helped to expose hidden complexities and reveal surprising consequences and implications of drug serialization and pedigree laws around the world. Dirk is the author of "The Drug Supply Chain Security Act Explained". View Dirk's LinkedIn Profile Follow Dirk on Twitter
Russia, serialization

The Russia Serialization Pilot Guideline

The Russia Ministry of Health (MoH) is conducting a serialization and tracing pilot with a number of supply chain members between February 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017 (see “Russia Begins Its Pharma Supply Chain Pilot”).  The MoH is due to publish an assessment of the pilot by next February 1st. 

Two weeks ago the Russian Minister of Health, Veroníka Skvortsova, signed the guidelines document for the pilot.  The 42-page document appears to be written as a pilot setup document, as opposed to Continue reading The Russia Serialization Pilot Guideline →

Labels

Sponsored: The Season For Label Redesign

With the approach of pharma serialization deadlines all around the world, this is the season for label redesign.  The addition of new unique identifiers in 2D barcodes and human readable forms—often without removing existing linear barcodes—requires knowledge of the pharma labeling regulations in the target markets as well as artwork skills (see “DSCSA: Label Artwork Heartaches”).  The problem is, serialization doesn’t apply to just one product, it applies to all prescription drugs marketed in the target market.  That threatens to cause Continue reading Sponsored: The Season For Label Redesign →

DSCSA, HDA

Dawn of HDA’s Origin, The Key to DSCSA Compliance

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This week at the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) Distribution Management Conference and Expo (DMC) the HDA and ValueCentric will provide much more detail around the new master data sharing service they plan to make available in July.  The new service—named “Origin”—is intended to provide members of the pharma supply chain with a single directory of master data for all prescription drugs marketed in the United States (see Origin website).  That is, it is a database of master data wrapped within a cloud-based service. 

Origin master data is composed Continue reading Dawn of HDA’s Origin, The Key to DSCSA Compliance →

Brand Protection

Sponsored: Brand Protection: The ‘No Brainer’ Value, Beyond Compliance

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Pharma companies are spending a boat-load of money to put serial numbers on their drug packages and homogeneous cases, and collecting aggregation data for the wholesale distributors.  And in every one of those companies, their leadership is asking, “What can we do to get some value, beyond compliance, from our investments?  Can we sell someone some data?  Can we get some new business advantage?  Can we get some new insight into our processes or into the operation of the supply chain?” Continue reading Sponsored: Brand Protection: The ‘No Brainer’ Value, Beyond Compliance →

FDA

One Immediate Impact of President Trump On The FDA

Most RxTrace subscribers are aware that the FDA is way overdue to publish four guidance documents mandated by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) (see “Who Is Being Harmed By Four Overdue FDA DSCSA Guidances?” and “Is The FDA Intentionally Delaying Publication Of The Overdue DSCSA Guidance?” for a list of the missing documents).  Two of those four documents could impact how some drug manufacturers deal with the November 27, 2017 deadline for full serialization of prescription drug products, depending on what the FDA says in them. 

Every day since the original due date of those documents (November 27, 2015) I have Continue reading One Immediate Impact of President Trump On The FDA →

ANVISA

ANVISA Reveals Draft Serialization Regulation and Asks For Comments

Last week, the National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (ANVISA), the healthcare regulator in Brazil, published a draft of their proposed pharma serialization regulations aimed at meeting the requirements of the new law number 13.410 of December 28, 2016 (see “Brazil Gets Rational With Their New Pharma Traceability Law”).  The purpose of this new publication is to solicit comments from interested parties.  It is called “Public Consultation No. 311 of February 15, 2017”.  This is not a final regulation—the public consultation ends on March 17, 2017, after which changes to the text, based on the feedback collected, are likely before it becomes final—but it provides us with a solid view of ANVISA’s thinking, and that amounts to a big win for the industry, and for Brazil.  Now is the time to read it over and submit your comments to help make it even better. Continue reading ANVISA Reveals Draft Serialization Regulation and Asks For Comments →

UDI

Sponsored: RxTrace to Sponsor the 2017 UDI Conference – June 7 & 8 in Baltimore, MD!

One of my favorite conferences each year is the annual Unique Device Identification (UDI) Conference put on by the Clarion Group on behalf of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  I am happy to sponsor the event each year, and I try to attend when I can.  

As an educational authority on UDI, the 9th annual UDI Conference will Continue reading Sponsored: RxTrace to Sponsor the 2017 UDI Conference – June 7 & 8 in Baltimore, MD! →

HDA

HDA’s 2016 Serialization Readiness Survey

Because of all the major news and developments over the last six months, it has taken me way too long to fully cover the Healthcare Distribution Alliance’s (HDA’s) 2016 Serialization Readiness Survey of drug manufacturers.  In my defense, I did cover it partially in my report of the HDA 2016 Traceability Seminar (see “HDA Delivers Home Run To Record-Breaking Audience”), but the other news from that event seemed to overshadow the survey results.  The HDA survey executive summary was so well done, and the results so important that it deserves closer scrutiny.  So here is my coverage, better late than never. Continue reading HDA’s 2016 Serialization Readiness Survey →