Aggregation of saleable drug packages to shipping cases and pallets is not required by the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) or the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) or the related Delegated Regulation (EUDR). But certain business processes in the EU under the FMD will be difficult to accomplish without it, and after November 2023, the operation of the supply chain in the US will not be efficient without it (see “Aggregation: The Achilles’ Heel of Pharma Supply Chain Operation Under A Serialization Regulation”, “EU FMD: Aggregation Is Not Mandated, But It Will Be Necessary” and “Pharma Aggregation: How Companies Are Achieving Perfection Today”). Absent a mandate, companies need to recognize, themselves, just how vital aggregation is to their businesses and prepare to generate it and/or make use of it.
Continue reading An Aggregation ‘Discussion’Tag Archives: Inference
EU FMD: Aggregation Is Not Mandated, But It Will Be Necessary
Ever since the E.U. Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) was passed in 2011 my European friends have touted the fact that their government mandated solution would take a “bookend” approach. The implication was always that it would be much less complex than the ePedigree approaches that were being planned by various U.S. states, and then by the U.S. federal government with the passage in 2013 of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).
My friends always liked to point out how simple Continue reading EU FMD: Aggregation Is Not Mandated, But It Will Be Necessary
Sponsored: The 2016 RxTrace U.S. Pharma Traceability Survey, Sponsored by Frequentz, Final Report
Take a close look at the results. They reveal that Continue reading Sponsored: The 2016 RxTrace U.S. Pharma Traceability Survey, Sponsored by Frequentz, Final Report
DQSA: Will U.S. Pharma Distributors Mandate Aggregation Data In Phase 1?
I attended the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) Track and Trace Seminar held in Crystal City, VA on November 11-13, 2013. I was particularly interested in the session called “Distributor Case Studies and Updates”, as were a lot of other people. The speakers were:
- Chris J. Anderson, Director, Quality Systems, Cardinal Health, Inc.
- Steve Tadevich, Director, Product Serialization Technologies, McKesson Corporation
- Heather Zenk, PharmD, Vice President, Business Integration, AmerisourceBergen Corporation
Each speaker gave a brief presentation about their current serialization and pedigree programs before taking questions as a panel. As you would expect, all of the preparation these companies have done up to this point has been aimed squarely at the California pedigree law which would have gone into effect for wholesalers in California in mid-2016. But, Continue reading DQSA: Will U.S. Pharma Distributors Mandate Aggregation Data In Phase 1?
California, Congress and The Choices We Are Forced To Face
Another week has gone by with no official movement in the Senate on the compromise pharmaceutical compounding and track & trace bill, H.R. 3204, the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) (see “Waiting For The Senate To Act On A Track & Trace Bill, Again”). With the focus of the Congress rightly on reopening the government I think we should expect to wait a little longer. You can bet that the supporters and the opposition are both developing their strategy as time goes by.
I attended the GS1 Global Healthcare Conference in San Francisco last week and it was a great opportunity to reconnect with a lot of people I have worked with over the years on defining workable standards for healthcare supply chain data exchange. Some of us are Continue reading California, Congress and The Choices We Are Forced To Face
Hey California Board of Pharmacy: Your Time Is Running Out!
The California Board of Pharmacy has begun to hold ePedigree-specific meetings with staff and a subset of the Board present. The first of these occurred on Monday of this week. The agenda was fairly long and promised action on a number of important topics, including the possibility that the Board would consider the use of EPCIS as a pedigree platform, inference, pedigree certifications and drop shipments. I came away disappointed that the only thing that happened was a brief discussion of each topic but seemingly no real action. It was almost as if the Board members and staff had made no progress on any of these topics since the March Enforcement Committee meeting. All that seemed to happen since that meeting Continue reading Hey California Board of Pharmacy: Your Time Is Running Out!
Q&A With Virginia Herold, Executive Officer, California Board Of Pharmacy
I finally had time to listen to the recording of the original webcast of the interview with Virginia Herold, the Executive Officer of the California Board of Pharmacy that occurred on March 20, 2013. Shabbir Dahod of TraceLink, a supplier of ePedigree solutions and other supply chain products and services, asked a series of very detailed and very interesting questions of Ms. Herold. The information conveyed through the questions and answers are very compelling and anyone interested in meeting the requirements of the law should listen to the whole recording. You can get access to it here on the TraceLink website. Continue reading Q&A With Virginia Herold, Executive Officer, California Board Of Pharmacy
The Best Laid Plans…
I attended the California Board of Pharmacy Enforcement Committee meeting last week and several topics came up that I want to write about. Unfortunately I’ve been doing a lot of traveling since then and all of a sudden I started having computer problems a few days ago. My youngest daughter is getting married next month and so the family met up in Chicago this past weekend for several of the events leading up to the big one. There is more travel scheduled for this week.
Travel doesn’t normally interfere with my ability to write on a deadline, but Continue reading The Best Laid Plans…