Tag Archives: GDSN

Simple, Standard, Low Cost Product Master Data Synchronization for DSCSA

June 11, 2018 Dirk Rodgers

The lack of simple, standard, low cost product master data synchronization threatens to derail the industry’s general consensus-plan to use GS1’s Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) as the basis of the interoperable electronic data exchange to meet the 2023 requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) (see “HDA Questions FDA’s Authority To Mandate A Centralized System For the EDDS”). This is probably why the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) tried to get out in front and offer their Origin master data synchronization service last year (see “Dawn of HDA’s Origin, The Key to DSCSA Compliance”). And it likely underlies why TraceLink filed a lawsuit against HDA a few months later (see “Tracelink vs. HDA” and “What The TraceLink v HDA Lawsuit Teaches Us About The Value of Supply Chain Master Data”, and also see the standard disclaimer below). That lawsuit has since been settled out of court.

Without everyone holding the identical product master data for every drug they might receive, EPCIS messages used to document DSCSA transactions will need to carry that master data. That would induce a heavy Continue reading Simple, Standard, Low Cost Product Master Data Synchronization for DSCSA →

Data Exchange, DSCSA

EDDS: The New Data Exchange Requirements

January 8, 2018 Dirk Rodgers

The Enhanced Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) is due to begin on November 27, 2023. That’s the first day that the US pharma supply chain is supposed to fully operate with serial numbers. Yes, serial numbers in human readable and encoded into 2D barcodes will be on every drug packaged after November of this year, but there is only limited use of those serial numbers in the supply chain until 2023. But when the EDDS starts, everything changes. From that point on, every Transaction Information (TI) document must include the full DSCSA Unique Identifiers—including the serial numbers for the first time—that are physically included in the shipment, the Transaction History (TH) no longer needs to be exchanged, and the data exchange requirements change. Let’s focus in on those data exchange changes. Continue reading EDDS: The New Data Exchange Requirements →

DSCSA, HDA

Dawn of HDA’s Origin, The Key to DSCSA Compliance

March 6, 2017 Dirk Rodgers 1 Comment

This week at the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) Distribution Management Conference and Expo (DMC) the HDA and ValueCentric will provide much more detail around the new master data sharing service they plan to make available in July. The new service—named “Origin”—is intended to provide members of the pharma supply chain with a single directory of master data for all prescription drugs marketed in the United States (see Origin website). That is, it is a database of master data wrapped within a cloud-based service.

Origin master data is composed Continue reading Dawn of HDA’s Origin, The Key to DSCSA Compliance →

NDC

An Open Letter To The FDA, RE: Please Fix The National Drug Code Soon

April 4, 2016 Dirk Rodgers 1 Comment

Dear FDA,

Thanks for inviting me to your DSCSA Pilot Party this week. I look forward to visiting you at your Silver Spring home so we can catch up on what’s been happing in our lives recently. I’m glad you are thinking more about the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) lately. I am too.

In fact, I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be if you would fix the broken National Drug Code (NDC) as part of the implementation of the DSCSA. It’s really not very hard to do. You already laid out and tested the path that needs to be followed when you implemented the Unique Device Identification (UDI) numbering system for medical devices a few years ago.

Remember how happy that made me? Remember, I called it “revolutionary” (see “FDA Proposed UDI: A Revolution In Number Assignment”), and it was! But before I get to how you could do it for pharmaceuticals, let me explain why you should do it as clearly as I can. Continue reading An Open Letter To The FDA, RE: Please Fix The National Drug Code Soon →

GDSN, SCMD

DSCSA Deadline Represents A Crossed Threshold Into The SCMD Era

April 6, 2015 Dirk Rodgers

There is a not-so-secret situation that has been festering for years in the internal IT systems of many companies in the U.S. pharma supply chain. In the past, nobody liked to admit it, but most would, because the full extent of the problem was hidden away from public view. It was an internal problem mostly affecting only internal systems.

The problem was that the quality of the local master data was poor. Master data is the data that companies hold in internal databases to describe their trading partners (customers and suppliers), products (their own and those of other companies), contract parameters (pricing, authorization, terms and conditions, etc.), and facilities, etc.

Companies get lulled into thinking this data Continue reading DSCSA Deadline Represents A Crossed Threshold Into The SCMD Era →

California Pedigree Law

“The Shadows Of Things That MAY BE, Only” : EPCIS and California Compliance

January 7, 2013 Dirk Rodgers 1 Comment

Currently, we know that companies can use GS1’s Drug Pedigree Messaging Standard (DPMS) to comply with the California pedigree law. That’s been known for a long time now. But many companies have been hoping to use GS1’s more general purpose Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) standard instead for almost as long. For just as long, it has been known that a number of problems arise when you try to figure out exactly how to apply EPCIS to California compliance.

The problem is, EPCIS was originally envisioned by its creators to share supply chain “visibility” data. That is, event data that was to be collected automatically based on Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) reads picked up by readers that were to be spread around the supply chain by each of its members. The collection of RFID readers were to form a kind of “visibility” of each RFID tag applied to the products in the supply chain. From this visibility would come benefits. One of those benefits was to be Continue reading “The Shadows Of Things That MAY BE, Only” : EPCIS and California Compliance →

GS1

Should GS1 Continue Developing ePedigree Standards?

September 17, 2012 Dirk Rodgers 2 Comments

For the first time since GS1 produced the Drug Pedigree Messaging Standard (DPMS) standard in 2005, GS1 has just published a call-to-action for the formation of a new standards development group to focus on a new pedigree-related standard. The new group will be called the “Pedigree Security, Choreography and Checking Service (PSCCS) Mission Specific Work Group (MSWG)”. According to the call-to-action:

“This group will develop standards to allow pharmaceutical supply chain parties striving to meet pedigree regulation requirements, by gathering and checking pedigree event data. Standards will also address data confidentiality and security. This MSWG will create

A) standard for security framework applicable to EPCIS and,

B) pedigree checking services.”

This group’s output will not be a self-contained pedigree standard, per se, but Continue reading Should GS1 Continue Developing ePedigree Standards? →

GDSN, UDI

FDA Proposed UDI: The GUDID Database

September 10, 2012 Dirk Rodgers 2 Comments

The FDA is proposing the creation of a Global Unique Device Identification Database (GUDID), a publicly accessible database that would hold information about each medical device marketed in the U.S. The GUDID has some similarities with GS1’s Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) but rather than accepting the use of GS1’s standard and service, they appear to have decided to roll their own. Is that a good idea or will it just result in unsynchronized duplication? Is there a way to use GDSN to serve GUDID (or vice versa)? Could the GUDID concept work for drugs too? Continue reading FDA Proposed UDI: The GUDID Database →

RxTrace