Earlier this month the Russian Federation finally amended Decree #1556 to cut the length of the Signature portion of the crypto-code element of their pharmaceutical unique identifier in half. Will that solve the problems the industry uncovered, like the barcode taking up so much space and slow read performance? Let’s take a closer look at it, but first, a review.
Continue reading Russia Officially Cuts Length of Crypto-code in Half
Earlier this month Anvisa published an initial report on their drug traceability pilot as required by law there (see “Brazil Gets Rational With Their New Pharma Traceability Law” and “Brazil Publishes RDC-157 To Regulate 2017 3-Lot Pilot”). I finally had time to use Google Translate on that report. Google keeps improving their translation software and it is now to the point where I think the translation of this document is pretty good. I still don’t recommend you use it for compliance decisions, but it’s great for getting a preview of what the document—originally in Portuguese—says.
Continue reading Brazil: The Anvisa 2019 Pilot Report
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’
Last week, the Pharmaceutical Distribution Security Alliance (PDSA) published two papers aimed at kickstarting the creation of a new non-profit organization that would accept the responsibility for setting up and executing governance over Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) phase II interoperability (see “A Serious DSCSA Governance Organizational Proposal Emerges From PDSA”). PDSA defines “DSCSA phase II” to be the same as what the DSCSA text calls the “Enhanced Drug Distribution Security” (EDDS) phase (see “EDDS: The New Data Exchange Requirements”). The EDDS phase (err, Phase II of the DSCSA) starts on November 27, 2023. In most informal conversations this phase is usually just referred to as “2023”.
Continue reading PDSA’s Proposal for Governance of DSCSA Phase II Interoperability
The internet lit up last week on the publication of an official warning letter from Alonza Cruse, Director, Office of Pharmaceutical Quality Operations, Office of Regulatory Affairs, to John H. Hammergren, CEO of McKesson Corporation, for violations of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). I’ve written about this situation before, back when the original FDA 483, notice of “inspectional observations”, was originally published (see “McKesson’s DSCSA 483 Explained”), but this new letter provides many more details of the incidents that led to that original notice, including some details of McKesson’s follow-up communications regarding the situation.
Continue reading FDA Hammer Comes Down On McKesson For DSCSA Violations
Starting tomorrow companies in the US supply chain wishing to volunteer to participate in FDA-sanctioned Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) pilots will have just 30 days to apply. Applicants are asked to propose pilots aimed at the goals of the FDA program. These include:
Continue reading FDA Announces Start Of DSCSA Voluntary Piloting Program
Beginning in less than two weeks, all packages of prescription drugs entering the EU pharma supply chain must contain a 2D barcode encoding the EU serialized ‘Unique Identifier’ (see “The ‘Unique Identifier’ in the EU Delegated Act”). More importantly, all drugs that have an FMD unique identifier on them at the point of dispense after February 9, 2019 must be “verified” and decommissioned through the National Medicines Verification System (NMVS) (see “What’s So Hard About Unique Identifier Verification?” and “Decommissioning Under the FMD/EUDR”). It looks like my prediction of FMD delays was wrong (see “How Will They Delay The FMD?”) but at least Denmark has just moved to solve a serious FMD dilemma with a kind of delay. Let me explain.
Continue reading FMD: Denmark Moves To Solve FMD Dilemma
I look forward to the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) Traceability Seminar every year because it is where the a very large number of the key members of the US supply chain meet to discuss implementation of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). Organizations like the HDA, GS1 US and the FDA often save up their significant news and publications throughout the fall so they can release them with big fanfare at this event. This year was no exception. All three of those organizations made news with their announcements this year. Continue reading 2018 HDA Traceability Seminar Recap
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