Last week, the Japan Diet, the bicameral legislature, enacted a bill that amends the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices (PMD) Law there. From the limited information I have seen from GS1 Healthcare and from online articles I found through Google, it appears that one of the many things the new bill does is add a new barcoding mandate. Previously, barcoding of medicines and medical devices in Japan was only recommended.
Some members of the US pharmaceutical supply chain are not waiting for the FDA to make the next move (see “DSCSA: Will 2020 Be FDA’s Year To Leap Forward?”). Instead, they are proactively organizing and setting the standards that will most likely be used to meet the requirements of the Enhanced Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which goes into effect on November 27, 2023. Forward motion has been made over the last month on two fronts: The DSCSA governance organization and the Verification Router Service (VRS).
If you do business in Brazil then you know that everything
is published there in Portuguese, including ANVISA’s documents. It is necessary to translate everything
unless you can read Portuguese. I can’t,
so whenever something comes out I have to do a quick translation to get an idea
of how significant it is. Last week, ANVISA
published two new documents related to their future pharma serialization and
traceability mandate. They are important,
because they relate directly to the schedule and some of the requirements of
Brazil’s pharma serialization and traceability mandate.
When it comes to the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), the FDA seems to alternate between hibernating, and leaping forward. 2017 through mid-2018 was a leap forward period with the publication of 8 draft or final guidance documents and 3 public meetings. Then in 2019, hibernation. Yes, FDA’s list of DSCSA guidance and policy documents has two entries for 2019 so far, but one is simply a notice reopening the comment period on the DSCSA Pilots request for information that was originally opened in 2016 and 2017. The other is the compliance policy that provides one year of enforcement discretion for the 2019 wholesaler saleable returns requirement (see “No Surprise: DSCSA Verification Delay”). Neither were very taxing on the FDA to prepare. What should the FDA do next? What should they be doing right now?
Flag by Zscout370 – Государственный флаг Российской Федерации. Цвета флага: (Blue – Pantone 286 C, Red – Pantone 485 C) взяты из [1][2][3][4], Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33285605
We’ve seen this sequence of events before in China, Brazil, and India, and now they may be happening in the Russian Federation. The government issues regulatory requirements mandating pharma serialization and tracing with crazy-aggressive deadlines and with confusing, sometimes illogical requirements. Amendments are issued, sometimes helping, sometimes making things worse. Then just before (or just after) the deadline, when confusion reigns, someone else in the government issues calls for rationality, and the government quickly folds their requirements, rethinks and retrenches. In China and Brazil it resulted in a full withdrawal and total redesign of their entire approach…and much more reasonable deadlines. So far in India it has mostly just resulted in pushing the deadline out, again and again, but even there, there are signs that some are proposing a complete withdrawal and redesign. So far in the Russian Federation, all we have is the posting of a set of very rational recommendations by a group of participants in parliamentary hearings of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection. Their hearings were apparently related to the spotty readiness of the government and industry and their report comes less than 3 months from the deadline for serialization and tracing of all drugs.
Last week GS1 US published their “2019 Update: Barcode Readability for DSCSA 2023 Interoperability” in conjunction with the Big 3 wholesale distributors, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health. You’ve probably already seen it, but probably not like this. Keep reading.
This year there was a significant jump in the percentage of drug products containing the 2D barcode mandated by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). The problem is, for the last three years they have published their data four to five months after they collected the data (see also “Wholesalers Find Troubling Results In DSCSA Barcode Assessment“). What everyone really wants to know is, what percentage of drugs would have been marked with the 2D barcode in November of 2018 and today, not back in June of those years. And with three years’ worth of data, you can make a reasonable extrapolation of the data for the November dates, if you just apply a little spreadsheet and graphics skills. Let’s try it.
In late August, the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) issued three new drug and vaccine traceability guidance documents. Then in mid-September, they issued five draft documents for comment related to the data exchange protocol for drug traceability. Based on those publications, it appears that China really is accelerating their move toward traceability of drugs (see “China Commits To The Digital Future In Healthcare, Including Pharma Traceability”).
…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.
