During the report out and follow-up discussion at last week’s FDA Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) Pilots Workgroup (see “The 2016 FDA Pilots Workshop”) I heard an example of the industry throwing interoperability under the bus. That is, setting us all up for major complications down the road that could easily be avoided if the leaders would just address interoperability right today. One of the long-time leaders of the use of serialization and traceability in the U.S. pharma industry spoke up in front of the entire assembly and said that there existed a general “agreement” within the industry that “not everyone will use EPCIS”. That is, not everyone will use GS1’s Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) standard for meeting the DSCSA, and consequently, the FDA and the industry will need to allow other formats of the data in 2023. I just about fell out of my chair. Continue reading InBrief: Pharma Supply Chain Leaders, Stop Throwing Interoperability Under The Bus
Tag Archives: FDA
The 2016 FDA Pilots Workshop
I was initially disappointed in the FDA Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) Pilots Workshop that was held at FDA headquarters last week, but in the end, the outcome appeared to fit the need. Going in, I knew not to expect the FDA to convey any information to the attendees, so that is not why I was disappointed. I attended the public DSCSA workshop they held back in May of 2014 so I already knew their typical approach for workshops like these (see “The 2014 FDA DSCSA Workshop”). I knew that the purpose of the workshop was to inform the FDA, not to inform the attendees. I would estimate that about one out of every four attendees were expecting the opposite, and I would bet a significant percentage of those had not even read the DSCSA once. But that’s not why I was disappointed.
I was initially disappointed because Continue reading The 2016 FDA Pilots Workshop
Sponsored: The Many Faces Of The FDA
Why is there such a wide gap between the actions of the UDI face of the FDA and the DSCSA face?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an agency of the U.S. government that falls under the Department of Health and Human Services, which is under the leadership of the current Presidential Administration through a cabinet seat. But it is also a concept, and the concept has been conceived, modified, adjusted, influenced and expanded—especially expanded—by many thousands of members of Congress that have served from 1906 to 2016. It started as a nearly powerless monitoring agency in 1906 with the passage of the Federal Food and Drugs Act. But in the aftermath of a number of widely-reported incidents of harm and deaths caused by cosmetics and medicines, the Congress passed the original Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FD&C) in 1938 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law.
Right from the beginning you had an agency with at least three faces: foods, drugs and cosmetics. Continue reading Sponsored: The Many Faces Of The FDA
Meeting U.S. and E.U. Drug Serialization Requirements With A Single Solution
As serialization mandates sweep the world you would think that drug manufacturers and repackagers would just deploy one generic “serialization application” and simply turn it on for any drugs that requires it, and turn it off for any that do not. That’s probably what the legislatures and regulators who create the requirements think. RxTrace readers know it’s not nearly that easy.
The problem is that every regulation requires something different. The only common thread is that there is always a “serial number” requirement in there somewhere (thus the name). But the serial number itself is usually defined differently and everything else that surrounds the serial number is often not the same. It’s not a matter of just turning it on and off, it’s a matter of changing a bunch of parameters, which result in significantly more complexity in the setup, testing and validation of the system for each market. Continue reading Meeting U.S. and E.U. Drug Serialization Requirements With A Single Solution
FDA To Hold DSCSA Pilots Workshop
As we saw last fall, the FDA is planning to conduct at least one pilot project in 2016 to fulfill its DSCSA mandate to do so. The pilot should focus on the 2023 DSCSA technologies and processes (see “FDA Looking For Consulting Org To Run DSCSA Pilots“). Today we learned that a pilot will indeed occur this year, and the FDA wants your input into its design and goals. To accomplish that quickly, the FDA will establish a docket next Tuesday for collecting written comments, and a public workshop for collecting verbal comments.
The last DSCSA public workshop Continue reading FDA To Hold DSCSA Pilots Workshop
FDA Considering A Delay Of A Small Part Of The UDI Rule
For the second time this week, the FDA posted something related to the things I pay the most attention to. Earlier this week it was about the DSCSA. This time it was a draft guidance for comment on a proposed delay in enforcement of a small part of the Unique Device Identification (UDI) final rule. I’ve seen a lot of mentions around the internet about this new FDA posting but none of them really explain it very well (including the FDA). I’d like to take a stab.
Way back in around 1970 the FDA created a numbering system for drugs and one for devices. The one for drugs Continue reading FDA Considering A Delay Of A Small Part Of The UDI Rule
GS1 Publishes Version 16 Of Their General Specifications …And Why You Should Care
Medical device manufacturers have a choice of standards to use when identifying their products for the U.S. market. The FDA’s Unique Device Identification (UDI) rule allows them to select from any identification standards organization (referred to as a “number issuing” agency) that is accredited by the Agency for that purpose. So far, three organizations have been FDA-accredited: HIBCC, ICCBBA and GS1.
ICCBBA has a lock on the identification of Continue reading GS1 Publishes Version 16 Of Their General Specifications …And Why You Should Care
Who Is Being Harmed By Four Overdue FDA DSCSA Guidances?
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
Congress set the calendar for many different kinds of requirements when it adopted the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, signed by the President back on November 27, 2013. One of those dates was last November 27, 2015, two years after enactment, when the FDA was required to publish four new draft guidances. So far, none of them have appeared (see “FDA DSCSA Deadline Passes Quietly”). Continue reading Who Is Being Harmed By Four Overdue FDA DSCSA Guidances?
