Back in the fall of 2017 the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) published a paper containing recommendations for pharmaceutical product regulators around the world to consider for achieving future interoperability of national or market pharma track and trace systems. That is, their recommendations were aimed at enabling interoperability between and among the various current and future pharma track & trace regulated systems around the globe. For example, their recommendations could help the US FDA exchange and accept information from the European Medicines Verification System (EMVS), and vice versa. In this way, regulators in each market could learn about problems with drug products circulating within each other’s markets. Why would you want to do such a thing? Let’s take a look at their 2017 paper.
Increasingly, I’ve heard the opinion expressed that there will surely be multiple approaches adopted for exchanging data, and so it will be necessary for all of those approaches to be made interoperable with each other. Proponents of this idea claim it is unrealistic to expect a single approach to be accepted by all companies in the supply chain and therefore, having to deal with multiple approaches is inevitable. This kind of talk makes me nervous. Here’s why.
I just arrived home from a vacation in Aruba so I missed out on the winter weather many of you experienced last week. Here are a few pictures to help warm you up!
While I was in Aruba I spent some time thinking about interoperability as it applies to the provisions of the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). The text of the law uses the term “interoperable” multiple times with regard to the exchange of data between trading partners, but interestingly, it does not define the term. That leaves the definition of the term up to the FDA.
…a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between healthcare supply chains, track and trace technology, standards and global regulatory compliance
DISCLAIMER: RxTrace contains some of the personal thoughts, ideas and opinions of Dirk Rodgers. The material contained in RxTrace is not legal advice. Dirk Rodgers is not a lawyer. The reader must make their own decisions about the accuracy of the opinions expressed in RxTrace. Readers are encouraged to consult their own legal counsel and trading partners before taking any actions based on information found in RxTrace. RxTrace is not a vehicle for communicating the positions of any company, organization or individual other than Dirk Rodgers.
