Tag Archives: 2023

DSCSA Schedule Assessment, July 2019

It’s time to assess the progress of the industry and the FDA in their quest toward the November 27, 2023 Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) goal known as the Enhanced Drug Distribution (EDDS) phase…otherwise known as just ‘2023’ (see “EDDS: The New Data Exchange Requirements”).  Let’s step back and look at where we have come and where we need to go.

Continue reading DSCSA Schedule Assessment, July 2019

PDSA’s Proposal for Governance of DSCSA Phase II Interoperability

Independent, balanced, sector-neutral

Last week, the Pharmaceutical Distribution Security Alliance (PDSA) published two papers aimed at kickstarting the creation of a new non-profit organization that would accept the responsibility for setting up and executing governance over Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) phase II interoperability (see “A Serious DSCSA Governance Organizational Proposal Emerges From PDSA”).  PDSA defines “DSCSA phase II” to be the same as what the DSCSA text calls the “Enhanced Drug Distribution Security” (EDDS) phase (see “EDDS: The New Data Exchange Requirements”).  The EDDS phase (err, Phase II of the DSCSA) starts on November 27, 2023.  In most informal conversations this phase is usually just referred to as “2023”. 

Continue reading PDSA’s Proposal for Governance of DSCSA Phase II Interoperability

DSCSA: Interoperable Data Exchange In 2023

Lots of people have been talking lately about what interoperable data exchange in the US pharma supply chain will look like after the Enhance Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) takes effect in November 2023 (see “Does Interoperability Change In 2023?”, “5 Myths About The DSCSA In 2023” and “Interoperability And The DSCSA”). 

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.

Continue reading DSCSA: Interoperable Data Exchange In 2023

An Open Letter To Blockchain Vendors: Please Pay More Attention

Dear Blockchain Vendors,

It was good to see all of you at last week’s Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and Blockchain proof of concepts pilots review held by the Center For Supply Chain Studies (C4SCS) in Rockville, MD.  I hope your travel home was uneventful.  Let me say right at the top, I was in the audience representing Systech International.  My co-worker, Joe Lipari partnered with Dwight deVere of RxTransparent as the Green Team.  RxTrace is independent of Systech International.  That said, as the author of RxTrace, I have some helpful advice for you. Continue reading An Open Letter To Blockchain Vendors: Please Pay More Attention

Blockchain Will Not Be Used For DSCSA Data Exchange

That’s right.  I have now concluded that Blockchain will never be used in the US supply chain to fulfill the DSCSA requirement for sellers to provide buyers with Transaction Information (TI) and Transaction Statements (TS) (see also “Could Blockchain Technology Be Used For DSCSA Compliance?”).  So if you are currently planning to do a pilot to test a proposed architecture to do that, I recommend that you adjust it to test something else (see also “What Should FDA Pilot?”).

In fact, the thing to test is whether or not it can be used to facilitate gathering the TIs for a given Standardized Numerical Identifier (SNI) going back to the original manufacturer, as needed after November 27, 2023 during a suspect product investigation or recall.  Those are rare events compared with the number of drug sales and shipments where the TI and TS will need to be exchanged.

How and why did I come to this conclusion?  Let me explain. Continue reading Blockchain Will Not Be Used For DSCSA Data Exchange

FDA DSCSA Public Meeting #1 Exposes Gulf In Goals

The FDA held the first of three scheduled DSCSA public meetings last week.  This one focused on:

  • The vision for 2023; and,
  • The enhanced drug distribution security (EDDS) needs related to tracing prescription drugs at the package level.

The meeting started off with short presentations by representatives from:

In the short time they were each given, these speakers Continue reading FDA DSCSA Public Meeting #1 Exposes Gulf In Goals

5 Myths About The DSCSA In 2023

istock_67972853_smallerThere are a number of misconceptions floating around the industry right now about what will happen in November of 2023, when the Enhanced Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase mandated by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) begins.  It is surprising where you hear some of these, but they are all based on mis-reads of the DSCSA law itself.  I’ll explain the myths, and then I will try to provide extracts from the DSCSA that expose them as myths. Continue reading 5 Myths About The DSCSA In 2023