Tag Archives: global supply chains

Global Alignment

Pharma Serialization: Going Totally Global Soon

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World map.iStock.smallerOne of the best sessions during last week’s LogiPharma conference held in Princeton, NJ was called “Staging Your Implementation To Meet The 2017 Deadline”.  The “deadline” refers to the November 27, 2017 deadline for drug manufacturers to apply unique serial numbers to all drug packages and cases shipped into the U.S. market as required in the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), but it can also refer to similar deadlines with similar requirements in a number of other regions of the world.  The panel included knowledgeable representatives from two of the largest global pharma manufacturers selling into the U.S. market.  Both manufacturers are facing serialization mandates in the E.U., Brazil, Turkey, South Korea, China, India, Argentina and a few countries in Africa as well as the U.S.

As they spoke about their respective programs for meeting the requirements, one of the speakers mentioned that roughly 90% Continue reading Pharma Serialization: Going Totally Global Soon →

UDI

FDA Proposed UDI: A Revolution In Number Assignment

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Like so many others, I had been patiently awaiting the publication of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Unique Device Identification (UDI) proposed rules.  Now that they are out I’ve been studying them and I think I will have enough to say about them that I will cover the topic in a multi-part series.  Today I want to look at just one of the differences between the FDA’s proposed UDI rule for medical devices and their National Drug Code (NDC), the pharmaceutical unique identifier.  The NDC structure was first conceived by the FDA back in 1969.  For more about the history of the NDC see my essay “Anatomy Of The National Drug Code”.

The thing I find fascinating is that at the same time they created the NDC for drugs back in 1969 they also created a comparable identifier for medical devices.  They called it the National Health Related Item Code (NHRIC).  Both the NDC and the NHRIC were voluntary until 1972 when the FDA made Continue reading FDA Proposed UDI: A Revolution In Number Assignment →