Tag Archives: EDI

U.S. Pharma Supply Chain Complexity–Revisited

© Copyright 2011 Duncan Champney. used with Permission. This image was created with FractalWorks, a high performance fractal renderer for Macintosh computers. FractalWorks is available on the Mac App Store.
© Copyright 2011 Duncan Champney. used with Permission. This image was created with FractalWorks, a high performance fractal renderer for Macintosh computers. FractalWorks is available on the Mac App Store.

About 3 years ago I published an essay called “U.S. Pharma Supply Chain Complexity” where I attempted to provide a more realistic understanding of the U.S. pharma supply chain than the typical supply chain drawing offers.  That essay was aimed at helping the industry select an approach to meeting U.S. state pedigree laws, which are now preempted by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).  But, as with many of my older essays, the underlying ideas still have value despite preemption.

In this case, the ideas also provide a clear explanation for why pharma manufacturers should expect to meet the electronic data exchange requirements that are dictated by the large U.S. wholesale distributors, rather than attempting to get them to accept some alternate approach.

So I have copied and pasted that essay below and then edited to serve this new purpose. Continue reading U.S. Pharma Supply Chain Complexity–Revisited

Just Released – The HDMA EDI ASN Guidance For DSCSA

HDMA ASN for DSCSA coverNOTICE:  The HDMA has updated this guideline again only a few months after this essay was published.  Please see “HDMA Has Updated Their EDI ASN Guidance For DSCSA, Again” for additional information.  — Dirk.

The Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) has just published their much anticipated new guidance on applying the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) 856 Advance Ship Notice (ASN) transaction set toward compliance with the new U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which is Title II of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA).  HDMA members and non-members can download a copy of the new document here.  Make sure you look for “HDMA Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Guidelines for the 856 Advance Ship Notice to Support Implementation of DSCSA“.  (See the image to the right.)

The new guidance is voluntary, like all HDMA guidance (see “GS1 Identifiers and EPC’s in EDI Messages: Important New HDMA Guidance” and “Updated HDMA Bar Code Guidance: A Must Read“), but companies who Continue reading Just Released – The HDMA EDI ASN Guidance For DSCSA

DQSA: How Should Transaction Data Be Exchanged?

FDALogoThe U.S. FDA just published a docket asking for public input into standards for the interoperable exchange of information for tracing of human, finished, prescription drugs in paper or electronic format.  Ironically, they will accept responses to the docket in either paper or electronic format.  Comments should be submitted to the FDA within 60 days.  If my calculation is correct, you have until April 21st to submit your comments.

This docket was expected because the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), enacted last November, gives the FDA one year to publish a draft guidance document that establishes standards for the interoperable exchange of that type of information, and they are required to consult with the industry and other interested parties [see Section 582(a)(2)].  I have written about this requirement and the short time after the guidance is published before the members of the supply chain must make use of those standards (see “The Flaw That Must Be Addressed in H.R. 3204, The Drug Quality and Security Act” and “DQSA: Getting To Electronic Transaction Data Exchange“).  This docket fulfills the first of many mandates that the FDA is facing in

Continue reading DQSA: How Should Transaction Data Be Exchanged?

Data Ownership In The Track & Trace Cloud

Cloud over IllinoisImportant Notice To Readers of This Essay On November 27, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 into law. That act has many provisions, but one is to pre-empt all existing and future state serialization and pedigree laws like those that previously existed in California and Florida. Some or all of the information contained in this essay is about some aspect of one or more of those state laws and so that information is now obsolete. It is left here only for historical purposes for those wishing to understand those old laws and the industry’s response to them.Who will own the data that supply chain trading partners store in some future cloud-based, semi-centralized Network Centric ePedigree (NCeP) data repository?  I met one potential future repository service provider who seemed to think that they would own that data.  Imagine their excitement.  All the data about where drugs go throughout the supply chain!  Think of the value they could mine from that.

Well, that’s never going to happen because companies in the supply chain won’t sign up for handing over all of their supply chain data to some third-party just so they can comply with regulations, especially when there exists an alternative approach that would allow them to avoid using a third-party and still comply (by using DPMS).  And regulatory agencies are Continue reading Data Ownership In The Track & Trace Cloud

GS1 Identifiers and EPC’s in EDI Messages: Important New HDMA Guidance

Earlier this month the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) published newly updated guidance documents for the use of Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) messages in the U.S. healthcare supply chain.  This is a very important update that supply chain participants should take notice of because it includes new information about how to properly communicate GS1 identifiers, including GLN’s, GTIN’s, and Electronic Product Codes (EPC’s) like SGTIN’s and SSCC’s, within the four document types that are in common use for Order-to-Cash transactions.

The EDI document types included in the updated guidance includes: Continue reading GS1 Identifiers and EPC’s in EDI Messages: Important New HDMA Guidance