Tag Archives: linear barcodes

An Open Letter To The FDA: New NDC Format Public Meeting

Dear FDA:
Thank you for inviting interested parties like me to provide our thoughts on the new NDC format that you think will be necessary in 10 to 15 years (see “FDA Seeks Input On The Future Format of the National Drug Code”).  I hope you can make it that long, but regardless, now is certainly the time to begin working on a replacement. Continue reading An Open Letter To The FDA: New NDC Format Public Meeting

NDC Nearing Its End, Afflicted by ‘Identifier Failure’

business-executive-and-his-energy-level-concept-vector-cartoon-i-507717540_4911x3472Heart Failure is a human condition that is characterized by several easily identifiable symptoms, including fatigue, difficulty breathing and in its later stages, gurgled breathing.  My mother and my mother-in-law both suffered from heart failure during their decline.  Analogous to heart failure in humans is a condition of an identifier system that is near the end of its useful life that we can call “identifier failure”.  At the end of November, a new FDA final guidance called “Requirements for Foreign and Domestic Establishment Registration and Listing for Human Drugs, Including Drugs That Are Regulated Under a Biologics License Application, and Animal Drugs” went into effect.  Buried deep within this 200+ page document is the official announcement that signaled the National Drug Code (NDC) identifier system is now afflicted with this end-stage condition.  The NDC won’t last long now, and there is no longer any excuse for inaction.  The need for a replacement is now urgent. Continue reading NDC Nearing Its End, Afflicted by ‘Identifier Failure’

The HDA Bar Code Quick Start Guide For Meeting The DSCSA And Other FDA Regulations

HDA logoThe Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) (formerly HDMA) published their highly anticipated “Guidelines for Bar Coding in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Quick Start Guide” a few weeks ago.  Do yourself a favor and stop reading this essay right now, click on the link and download your copy and read it.  It is free, and it is essential reading for manufacturers and solution providers who expect to develop and deploy solutions that ship serialized units and cases of prescription drugs to U.S. wholesale distributors.  This includes solutions that Continue reading The HDA Bar Code Quick Start Guide For Meeting The DSCSA And Other FDA Regulations

The Next Markets To Impose Pharma Serialization and Tracing?

Digital WorldThe pharmaceutical markets that currently have a serialization and/or tracing regulation on the books include the United States, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Italy, Turkey, South Korea, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.  Not all are fully operational yet, but they are official.  This list may be about to grow by two. Continue reading The Next Markets To Impose Pharma Serialization and Tracing?

Will The FDA Eliminate The Linear Barcode On Drugs?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADuring last week’s FDA DQSA supply chain stakeholder’s conference call I was heartened by Ilisa Bernstein’s comments about the linear barcode rule (she says the FDA just calls it “the barcode rule”).  The question was asked by a caller whether or not the linear barcode requirement might be dropped in light of the 2D barcode requirement contained in the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) since some drug packages are too small to accommodate both barcodes.  This is an excellent question and I was happy the caller asked it so directly.

In her response, Dr. Bernstein pointed out that Continue reading Will The FDA Eliminate The Linear Barcode On Drugs?

FDA: Ready, Set, Hike!

FDALogoTuesday’s FDA stakeholder call with Dr. Ilisa Bernstein, deputy director in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Office of Compliance, was helpful if only to let us know that the FDA has begun to mobilize immediately after the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) was signed into law by President Obama last week (see “It’s Official, President Obama Signs H.R. 3204, DQSA, Into Law” and “InBrief: Comments on H.R. 3204 by FDA’s Dr. Ilisa Bernstein at PSM Interchange 13”).  The call was very thin on what their plan is, but that was the point.  Dr. Bernstein wanted everyone to know Continue reading FDA: Ready, Set, Hike!

Updated HDMA Bar Code Guidance: A Must Read

In a long awaited and much anticipated move the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA) published updated guidance for the formatting, encoding and placement of barcodes in the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain.  The document is called “HDMA Guidelines for Bar Coding in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain 2011”.  The guidance is aimed mostly at pharma manufacturers and repackagers who place barcodes on their drug packages, cases and pallets.  The last time the guide was published was in 2005 and this new edition includes some significant changes that everyone in the supply chain who deals with product and shipping container labeling should be aware of.

The updated document can be downloaded from the HDMA Marketplace web page.  It is free to HDMA members.  Non-members will need to pay a fee but don’t let that stop you from downloading a copy if you have any Continue reading Updated HDMA Bar Code Guidance: A Must Read

SNI’s Are Not Enough In a Plateau-Based Supply Chain Security Approach

I recently published an essay on RxTrace called “Plateaus of Pharma Supply Chain Security” in which I proposed that a better timeline for the introduction of technology to secure the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain was one based on plateaus.  Each succeeding plateau would add the adoption of new technology and/or data communications among the participants in the supply chain with the intent of elevating the security over the previous plateau.

In that essay I included illustrative dates for each of the four plateaus that I offered as an example of the concept, but you could easily imagine the overall program having open-ended dates that would allow the supply chain to adopt one plateau at a time and move to the next plateau only if/when a security problem is discovered at the current plateau.  That is, jump to the next plateau only when necessary.  Taking this approach, you may never actually need to get to the later plateaus.

For example, imagine that the first plateau were for manufacturers to serialize all drugs at the pharmacy-saleable package level (what I normally call “unit-level”) with an FDA Standardized Numeric Identifier (SNI) and all supply chain owners of drugs were to read the SNI’s and simply keep records of who they bought them from and who they sold them to.

With no data communications between trading partners that includes the SNI’s it might seem that little
security has been gained over what is done today.  But this small step (“small” compared to a full pedigree or track & trace system) would allow criminal Continue reading SNI’s Are Not Enough In a Plateau-Based Supply Chain Security Approach